Size and strain rate effects in metallic samples of confined volumes: Dislocation length distribution

In metallic samples of confined volumes, the size effects are governed by the characteristics of the dislocation network. However, there are only few studies that quantitatively tried to relate the dislocation network properties to the sample size effects. The present work studies the dislocation length distribution in pillars with different sizes during compression test with different strain rates using large scale atomistic simulation. The size and strain rate effects are then investigated using the observed dislocation length distribution. (C) 2016 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.