Explaining the work-hardening behavior of crystalline materials and the size dependent plasticity has been a long lasting problem. Plastic deformation mainly arises from the collective motion of dislocations. Although individual dislocation processes are well studied, the study of the overall effects of these processes was challenging before the emergence of computer modeling. Of the computer simulation techniques, discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) is the most suitable method to model thin films at the micron scale and below. This method allows us to study the quantitative effects of certain mechanisms.
