The Mean Shear Stress in an Array of Dislocations and Latent Hardening

Abstract

The root mean square shear stress on a slip plane due to an array of dislocations is taken as a measure of the work hardening of that plane The ratio of the hardening of the latent slip system to that of the operative system, which is shown to be independent of the distribution of the dislocations, is calculated both for screw and for edge dislocations. Numerical values are given for the twelve slip systems of face-centred cubic crystals. The results suggest that hardening by edges may account for the greater part of the observed latent hardening.