Yielding and tensile behavior of nanocrystalline copper

Two theoretical frameworks are calibrated to capture the inverse Hall–Petch phenomenon, as well as the stress–strain response of nanocrystalline Cu during plastic flow. The first framework employed is gradient plasticity enhanced with an interface energy term, the use of which is dictated by the fact that at the nanoscale interfaces play a dominant role in the mechanical behavior of nanocrystalline materials. The second formulation involves a simplified gradient plasticity model without an interface energy term coupled with wavelet analysis.