The Nabarro equation for thermally activated plastic glide

Abstract

A special feature of thermally activated plastic glide is that the activation energy is not a constant but depends strongly on the applied stress, all the way down to zero at the low-temperature yield stress. The Nabarro equation gives the relation for this dependence and is particularly applicable when the obstacles to glide dislocations are localized, as in forest work hardening. Some characteristic features of plastic flow and creep, which result from this, are briefly discussed.

Acknowledgment

I am grateful to Professor Derek Fray for extending to me the facilities of the Department of Materials Science, University of Cambridge, during the course of this work.