Mild steel specimens are submitted to a complex strain path (tension-s
hear sequence). The stress decrease recorded at the beginning of the s
econd path is associated at the grain scale with a localization of the
deformation in microbands. These microbands are associated with a sin
gle crystallographic slip system and carry the main part of the impose
d strain. The prediction of the active slip systems during both the pr
estrain and the second path with the Taylor and static models leads to
a necessary condition for the development of microbands: the slip sys
tem having the maximum Schmid factor must have been latent during the
prestrain. At high strain level, the material resumes strain hardening
and the dislocation structure is then composed of sheets parallel and
/or perpendicular to the shear direction. The origin of the flow local
ization and the transition between the two types of structures, i.e. m
icrobands and dislocation sheets, are then discussed.