Latent hardening (source code)

= Latent hardening

<Latent hardening> is increased resistance on one crystal <slip system> caused by plastic slip on another <slip system>. The word latent emphasizes that the affected system need not have been active during the earlier loading. It is therefore a statement about interactions between deformation mechanisms, rather than simply about the total amount of deformation.

A simple crystal-plasticity model writes $\dot g_\alpha=\sum_\beta h_{\alpha\beta}|\dot\gamma_\beta|$, where $g_\alpha$ is the critical resolved <shear stress> for system $\alpha$ and $\gamma_\beta$ is slip on system $\beta$. Off-diagonal coefficients represent cross-system hardening, while diagonal coefficients describe self-hardening.<Applied Mechanics of Solids by A. F. Bower>[§3.12, crystal-plasticity slip-system hardening laws]{ref} Changing loading direction after predeformation can activate previously less-favoured <slip systems> and reveal this history dependence. Predicting the next system to move therefore requires both resolved <stress> geometry and the evolving resistances.