Spatiotemporal Ordering at Plastic Flow of Solids

The initiation of spatially-ordered strain-localization patterns—waves which evolve with time—is investigated for a wide range of the deformed materials—metals and alloys. The main parameters of these waves, i.e. the propagation velocity against the work-hardening coefficient, dispersion law, and wavelength against the grain size and specimen length are determined. Consideration is given to the possibility of treating plastic-flow localization as a process of plastic flow occurring in a deformed medium. A set of equations is derived, which is appropriate for the description of the evolution of local strain nuclei. The changes of the local-strain pattern type, which are observed in the various stages of flow, are examined. A model is proposed to account for the large-scale periodicity manifested in the distribution of localized deformation.