Strain Avalanches in Microsized Single Crystals: Avalanche Size Predicted by a Continuum Crystal Plasticity Model

Plastic deformation of small crystals occurs by power-law distributed strain avalanches whose universality is still debated. In this work we introduce a continuum crystal plasticity model for the deformation of microsized single crystals, which is able to reproduce the main experimental observations such as flow intermittency and statistics of strain avalanches. We report exact predictions for scaling exponents and scaling functions associated with random distribution of avalanche sizes. In this way, the developed model provides a routine for a quantitative characterization of the statistical aspects of strain avalanches in microsized single crystals.