A thermodynamic consistent model for coupled strain-gradient plasticity with temperature

The mechanical responses of small volume metallic compounds are addressed in this work through developing a nonlocal continuum theory. In this regard, a thermodynamicbased higher-order strain-gradient plasticity framework for coupled thermoviscoplasticity modeling is presented. The concept of thermal activation energy and the dislocations interaction mechanisms are taken into consideration to describe the choice of thermodynamic potentials such as Helmholtz free energy and rate of dissipation. The theory is developed based on the decomposition of the thermodynamic conjugate forces into energetic and dissipative counterparts, which provides the constitutive equations to have both energetic and dissipative gradient length scales. The derived constitutive model is calibrated against the experimental data of bulge test conducted on thin films.