Chapter 1 - Introduction

Abstract

For metallic materials that range in size from a few hundreds of nanometers to a few tens of micrometers, the size effects “Smaller is Stronger” is well observed during the plastic deformation. In addition, in addressing material instabilities due to shear bands and necking higher-order continua theories need to be used. Over the last three decades, a number of researchers have used the gradient-enhanced plasticity theory to model the microstructural material behavior, including the size effects, which could not be captured by the conventional plasticity theory, within the continuum-based framework. This chapter aims to briefly review the strain gradient continuum plasticity. A detailed review in the context of the theoretical, experimental, and numerical investigations will be presented in the following chapters.