2 MECHANICAL SIZE EFFECTS OF TECHNICAL INTEREST - A SIMPLE APPROACH

This paper presents a simple analysis of two experimental phenomena of technical interest, the fatigue threshold for crack propagation and t he particle size effect on abrasive wear rate, where plasticity is con fined to very small volumes embedded in elastic media. The analysis sh ows that both phenomena are mainly conditioned by the contribution of the plastic deformation gradients to the local flow stress in, respect ively, the plastic zone associated to the fatigue crack tip and the pl astic indentations under each active abrasive particle in two-body wea r.