The effects of dislocation climb on plastic deformation during loading and unloading are studied using a two-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics model. Simulations are performed for polycrystalline thin films passivated on both surfaces. Dislocation climb lowers the overall level of the stress inside thin films and reduces the work hardening rate. Climb decreases the density of dislocations in pile-ups and reduces back stresses. These factors result in a smaller Bauschinger effect on unloading compared to simulations without climb. As dislocations continue to climb at the onset of unloading and the dislocation density continues to increase, the initial unloading slope increases with decreasing unloading rate. Because climb disperses dislocations, fewer dislocations are annihilated during unloading, leading to a higher dislocation density at the end of the unloading step 

The modest aim of this short article is to provide some new results for a screw dislocation in a functionally graded material within the theory of gradient elasticity. These results, based on a displacement formulation and the Fourier transform technique, complete earlier findings obtained with the stress function method and extends them to the case of the second strain gradient elasticity. Rigorous and easy-to-use analytical expressions for the displacements, strains, and stresses are obtained, which are free from singularities at the dislocation line. 

In this paper, dislocation climb is incorporated in a two-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics model. Calculations are carried out for polycrystalline thin films, passivated on one or both surfaces. Climb allows dislocations to escape from dislocation pile-ups and reduces the strain- hardening rate, especially for fully passivated films. Within the framework of this model, climb modifies the dislocation structures that develop during plastic deformation and results in the formation of pile-ups on slip planes that do not contain any dislocation sources.