The role of geometrically necessary dislocations in giving material strengthening

The role of geometrically necessary dislocations in providing macroscopic strengthening is reviewed with particle reinforcement as an example. The general relation between the Nye tensor and slip along a curvilinear slip line net is derived to emphasise the importance of curvature of slip lines upon the rate of dislocation storage. (C) 2002 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.