The effect of the stress-concentration assisted cross-slip of screw dislocations upon the hardening of face-centered cubic single crystals was studied. The theoretical framework which was developed did not depend upon specific assumptions concerning the geometrical arrangement of the dislocations, nor upon the cross-slip mechanism. Relationships were derived that permitted the characterization of the hardening behavior, after the onset of stage-III, in terms of the stage-II hardening coefficient and the critical stress at which widespread cross-slip became possible. A detailed comparison of the theoretical results with experiment demonstrated that the theory provided a good description of the observed hardening behavior of face-centered cubic metals in the early stage-III regime.

Stage-III Hardening Revisited M.Zaiser, P.Hähner: Philosophical Magazine A, 1998, 77[6], 1515-29