Capturing slip band formation in Ni ₃ Al nanocubes during compression

The intermittent plasticity, and stochastic size effect, observed experimentally during the compression of fibbed Ni ₃ Al nanocubes are modelled by implementing gradient plasticity within a cellular automaton simulation. The simulation results are in agreement with the experimentally observed stress–displacement curves and can capture both their serrated and stochastic response. Analysing the simulation data allows for additional information to be obtained regarding the deformation mechanisms and microstructural changes during compression, such as the thickness of the individual localised slip zones that formed, as well as the total volume percentage that deformed plastically. Both of these length scales are shown to follow a size-dependent behaviour, suggesting that although the overall deformation may appear to be stochastic, the evolution of deformation still depends on the cube size.