Constitutive Relationships for the Time-Dependent Deformation of Metals

The paper discusses the constitutive relations for the inelastic deformation of a polycrystalline metal at high temperature. Commencing from a description of a dislocation structure in terms of strain hardening and thermal softening, the general form of the constitutive relation is developed in terms of a potential function. The existence of a stationary state potential is established and generalizations of isotropic and kinematic hardening are described.