Plastic yielding and work hardening of single crystals in a soft device

Abstract: An analytical solution to the problem of an anti-plane constrained shear of single crystals placed in a soft device within the continuum dislocation theory is found. The dependence of the nucleation stress on the grain size exhibits a modest deviation from the Hall–Petch relation. It is shown that, as soon as the dissipation is taken into account, the hardening behavior becomes nearly identical to that of single crystals in a hard device. To cite this article: K.C. Le, Q.S. Nguyen, C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]