A perspective on trends in multiscale plasticity

Research trends in metal plasticity over the past 25 years are briefly reviewed. The myriad of length scales at which phenomena involving microstructure rearrangement during plastic flow is discussed, along with key challenges. Contributions of the author's group over the past 30 years are summarized in this context, focusing on the statistical nature of microstructure evolution and emergent multiscale behavior associated with metal plasticity, current trends and models for length scale effects, multiscale kinematics, the role of grain boundaries, and the distinction of the roles of concurrent and hierarchical multiscale modeling in the context of materials design. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.