Strengthening Mechanisms in Crystal Plasticity

Abstract The strengthening of metals by a variety of means has been of interest over much of history. However, the elucidation of the actual mechanisms involved in the processes of alloying and work hardening, and related processes of metals as a scientific pursuit, has become possible only through the parallel developments in dislocation theory and in definitive experimental tools such as electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The important developments over the past several decades in the mechanistic understanding of the often complex processes of interaction of dislocations with each other, with solute atoms, and with precipitates during plastic flow have largely remained scattered in the professional…