Bending of thin crystalline strips: Comparison of continuum dislocation-based models

It is suggested that the size effect in plastic bending of thin crystalline strips is due to bowing of dislocations that nucleate at the free surface and glide towards the neutral plane. The approach is an application of the continuum dislocation-based model, which considers fields of curved dislocations endowed with line tension and which is embedded in a rigorous continuum mechanics framework. The model equations are evaluated and the results are compared with the previous version of the model where pre-existing straight dislocations were assumed in the strip.