The coupled effect of grain size and solute on work hardening of Cu-Ni alloys

A modified grain size-dependent model developed to capture the combined effects of solute and grain size on the work hardening behaviour of fine-grained Cu-Ni alloys is provided. This work builds on a recent model that attributes the grain size-dependent work hardening of fine-grained Cu to backstresses. In the case of Cu-Ni alloys, unlike commercially pure Cu, a grain size-dependent separation between the Kocks-Mecking curves develops, this being explained here based on an extra contribution from geometrically necessary dislocations in the solid solution alloy. This is corroborated by strain-rate sensitivity experiments.