Compression dilatometer tests were used to study the hot deformation response of a zirconium (Zr)-2.5% niobium (Nb) alloy over the temperature range 650 C to 850 C and strain rates of 10 À2.5 s À1 to 10 þ1 s À1 . A high number of test conditions was used (72, with every test duplicated) in order to assess how differences in data processing influence the resulting relationships among flow stress, temperature, and strain rate. Particular attention was paid to processing maps, showing strain-rate

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... ensitivity over the processing domain, commonly cited in the field and widely used as a basis to determine optimum processing conditions. Significant variations in these maps were found to depend on the number of data points included and the fitting procedure used to smooth the data. A finite element model of the test demonstrates the order of the corrections that Manuscript