The metals which have the bcc structure at and below room temperature include iron, refractory metals of Groups VA and VIA, and alkali metals. Experimental and theoretical investigations of deformation behavior carried out in the last twenty years are reviewed. Attention is concentrated mainly on low temperature properties where many anomalous features have been discovered. The phenomena discussed include slip asymmetry, failure of the Schmid law of critical resolved shear stress, the observation of anomalous slip in very pure metals and alloys, solution softening, and the ductile-brittle transition.

Some surprising features of the plastic deformation of body-centered cubic metals and alloys

This paper reviews the flow and fracture properties of amorphous metals synthetized by fast quenching from the liquid state. The data are analysed in conjunction with recently proposed theoretical models.

Flow and fracture in amorphous alloys

The Thermally Activated Deformation of Crystalline Materials

When a solid is plastically deformed in a hard testing machine and the cross-head is arrested, a continuous decrease of load is observed. An interpretation and analysis of this stress relaxation phenomenon is made. This effect can be used to study mechanisms of plastic deformation in solids, and details are given in the paper.

Stress Relaxation and the Plastic Deformation of Solids

The properties of linear defects in crystals (dislocation lines) and of planar defects (stacking faults) are important in almost every branch of solid state physics. This article is intended to give a comprehensive introduction to dislocation theory for the physicist who is not a specialist in crystal plasticity. It begins with a survey of the established theory relating to the geometrical and topological properties of dislocations, the elastic theory of dislocations in a continuum, the atomistic or core properties of dislocations, and the dynamics of moving dislocations. General methods for finding the elastic field of an arbitrary dislocation loop are outlined, and the results of some recent calculations using anisotropic elasticity are summarized. These include the prediction, partially confirmed by experiment, that dislocations in certain ranges of orientation may have negative line tension. The current importance of atomistic calculations of core structure and related problems is emphasized, and the methods available for these calculations are discussed. More detailed descriptions of dislocation and stacking fault configurations are given for some of the common crystal structures, and recent work on complex defects resulting from vacancy aggregation in close-packed structures is included. The experimental and theoretical evidence for the recent conclusion that screw dislocations in body-centred cubic metals have an asymmetric core is also reviewed. The rather controversial theory of thermally activated dislocation motion is described in a separate section, and examples are given of the application of this theory to various models of the obstacles encountered by moving dislocations. The final section is concerned with the theory of dislocations in grain boundaries and interphase boundaries, and includes the concept of the surface dislocation tensor.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0034-4885/33/1/307/pdf

R.J Arsenault

Papers

The double-kink model for low-temperature deformation of B.C.C. metals and solid solutions

An investigation of the mechanism of thermally activated deformation in tantalum and tantalum-base alloys

Low-temperature creep of alpha iron