Stress-Strain Curves of Steels

Stress-strain curve is essentially important to evaluate microstructural dependence of mechanical properties in steels and has been widely used in materials researches. Hence lots of experimental and theoretical studies have been made so far. Historical progress on this issue is briefly reviewed focusing on empirical relationships between microstructure and mechanical properties, theoretical modeling using continuum mechanics, deformation mechanism revealed by neutron diffraction, and modeling based on thermodynamics of dislocation motion. Mutual correspondence among these four topics is highlighted.