Orowan strengthening and forest hardening superposition examined by dislocation dynamics simulations

Rule of mixtures are an essential feature of the modeling of plastic deformation in complex materials in which more than one strain-hardening mechanism is involved. In this work, use is made of dislocation dynamics simulations to characterize the individual and the superposed contributions of two major mechanisms of crystal plasticity, i.e. Orowan strengthening and forest hardening. Based on a formal description of each hardening mechanism, evidence is presented to show that a quadratic rule of mixtures has the ability to predict quantitatively the flow stress of complex materials such as reactor pressure vessel steel.