**5.7 Influence of strain rates / argon atmosphere**

The systematic investigations show that the influence of strain rate on the deformation behaviour is negligible within practical range of temperature rates, but the time and temperature dependent aging behaviour is very important. Unlike the deformation behaviour, the strain rate shows an important influence on the lifetime behaviour due to the additional creep damage involved. These differences and the differences at IP/OP-TMF in the number of cycles to failure allow the separation and investigation of different damage mechanisms. Additional tests in argon atmosphere were executed for this aim, which show a lifetime increasing effect, because of oxidation damage being minimized.
