Strain-hardening of nanostructured materials was considered and a physically based interpretation of their low strain hardening capability was proposed in terms of a reduced storage rate of dislocations. The suggested model provided a modification of the Kocks–Mecking–Estrin evolution law for dislocation storage for nanostructured materials and predicted a critical grain size below which the strain hardening rate dropped off.

Critical Grain Size for Dislocation Storage and Consequences for Strain Hardening of Nanocrystalline Materials. O.Bouaziz, Y.Estrin, Y.Bréchet, J.D.Embury: Scripta Materialia, 2010, 63[5], 477-9