An overview was presented of the low-energy dislocation structure theory of low-temperature, zero-creep, dislocation-based crystal plasticity; as developed since Taylor's seminal theory in which he assumed that the application of stress caused an essentially instantaneous athermal generation of dislocation structures which were in equilibrium with the applied stress and which (during stress release or reversal) remained stable up to the previously maximum stress magnitude. It was shown that, in principle, the theory could easily explain: the four stages of work hardening, the shape of the stress-strain curve, the temperature dependence of work-hardening, the low-temperature strain-rate dependence of the flow stress, the difference between so-called planar and wavy glide materials, the empirical relationship between dislocation cell size and flow stress, grain-boundary hardening, alloy hardening (solid-solution, precipitation, phase-boundary), slip lines and slip bands, the evolution of dislocation structures from stages I to IV, deformation texture evolution, work-softening, the thermodynamics of dislocation storage, recovery, creep, recrystallization, and the development of dislocation structures during fatigue. All of these could be effortlessly explained merely on the basis of the known properties of glide dislocations, plus the second law of thermodynamics; as expressed in the low-energy dislocation structure hypothesis. This was that, among the structures which were in equilibrium with the applied tractions and which were accessible to dislocations, those would form which most nearly minimized the stored energy. The alternative, so-called self-organizing dislocation, model of crystal plasticity assumed that plastic deformation was due to individual thermally-activated processes which could be treated in terms of the thermodynamics of energy flow-through systems. It could be traced back to before Taylor’s theory, and yet continued to fail to yield significant results.

The Theory of Dislocation-Based Crystal Plasticity. D.Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf: Philosophical Magazine A, 1999, 79[4], 955-1008