Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to study the incipient dislocation plasticity in Ni3Al. Dislocation nucleation was found to occur preferentially at energetic atomic clusters with larger-than-average relative displacements. From the simulated distribution of the atomic relative displacements, a scaling model was proposed to predict the size dependence of the incipient plasticity condition in real-sized specimens.

Size Dependence of Incipient Dislocation Plasticity in Ni3Al. Zuo, L., Ngan, A.H.W., Zheng, G.P.: Physical Review Letters, 2005, 94[9], 095501