Plastic Deformation and Strain Hardening

Metals are the most thoroughly studied group among the many diverse substances that are the subject matter of Materials Science. They therefore make good paradigms, and furnish invaluable benchmarks, for guiding scientists in deciding how other materials should best be studied in order to reveal most clearly the interrelationships between structure and properties. This holds especially true for the mechanical strength properties which are associated with straining. Once one understands the basic phenomena and relationships pertaining to metals, similar types of rule can then often be transferred to other materials in spite of the fact that the magnitudes and relative extents of elastic, an elastic and plastic straining may be very different. In recent decades, striking examples and generally encouraging results, of the application of these ideas have been reported for ceramics, polymers and even for such complex natural composites as wood.