This paper addresses two important aspects of engineering size effects in miniaturizing metallic components and the modeling thereof. The critical role of processing induced size effects is emphasized, which tend to be easily forgotten in experimental work or engineering interpretations of size effects. The second aspect is related to the need for a rigorous strain gradient enrichment in crystal plasticity modeling, as the result of coarse graining the interaction between discrete dislocations. The physical origin of the energetic enrichment is discussed and its deterministic derivation is briefly confronted with the analogous result obtained from a statistical mechanics analysis. In the past decade, industry is increasingly focusing on the behavior of materials in micro and nano-systems. At the level of many micro-systems, metallic structures, and films are used ranging from sizes of a few microns to hundreds of microns. The scientific community has given considerable attention to this subject, in particular in the range where size effects have a dominant contribution.
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