Plastic behavior of face-centered-cubic metals over a wide range of strain

The plastic behavior of four pure face-centered-cubic (fcc) metals (Al, Au, Cu and Ni) was studied at room temperature up to a strain value of ∼8 achieved by severe plastic deformation. It is shown that at high strains the saturation flow stress and the total dislocation density can be scaled with the melting point, and the deformation process can be regarded as steady-state flow leading to a uniform description of the plastic behavior of these fcc metals at all temperatures. The results suggest that the plastic flow at room temperature of fcc metals processed by severe deformation is primarily attributable to diffusion-controlled and thermally activated processes due to the high concentration of deformation-induced vacancies.