Statistical aspects of microplasticity: experiments, discrete dislocation simulations and stochastic continuum models

Abstract

The plastic deformation properties of microscale and nanoscale specimens differ from those of their macroscopic counterparts as the discrete nature of the elementary processes governing plastic flow becomes directly visible. In such specimens, details of the initial defect microstructure may exert a strong influence on the recorded deformation behaviour, which accordingly exhibits significant scatter even amongst specimens that share an identical preparation history. The plasticity of microsamples appears as a sequence of spatially and temporally localised events and not as the smooth and continuous flow process envisaged by classical continuum elastoplasticity. These observations pose a significant challenge to constitutive modelling. In this feature article, we discuss the statistics of fluctuations in microscale and nanoscale plasticity and discuss the implications for computational modelling of plastic deformation processes on microscale and nanoscales. We propose a new type of constitutive models that combine a classical continuum description of the elastic problem with a stochastic description of the dynamics of plastic flow.