Modeling plasticity in nanostructured materials

The definition and magnitude of the intrinsic length scale are keys to the development of the theory of plasticity that incorporates size effects. Gradient plasticity theory with a material length scale parameter is successfully in capturing the size dependence of material behavior at the micron scale. However, a fixed value of the material length-scale is not always realistic and that different problems could require different values. Moreover, a linear coupling between the local and non-local terms in the gradient plasticity theory is not always realistic and that different problems could require different couplings. A generalized gradient plasticity model with a non-fixed length scale parameter is proposed. This model assesses the sensitivity of predictions in the way in which the local and non-local parts are coupled. The proposed model gives good predictions of the size effect in microbending tests of thin films and micro-torsion tests of thin wires.