Book excerpt: High-technology industries using plastic deformation demand soundly-based economical decisions in manufacturing design and product testing, and the unified constitutive laws of plastic deformation give researchers aguideline to use in making these decisions. This book provides extensive guidance in low cost manufacturing without the loss of product quality. Each highly detailed chapter of Unified Constitutive Laws of Plastic Deformation focuses on a distinct set of defining equations. Topics covered include anisotropic and viscoplastic flow, and the overall kinetics and thermodynamics of deformation. This important book deals with a prime topic in materials science and engineering, and will be of great use toboth researchers and graduate students. - Describes the theory and applications of the constitutive law of plastic deformation for materials testing - Examines the constitutive law of plastic deformation as it applies to process and product design - Includes a program on disk for the determination and development of the constitutive law of plastic deformation - Considers economical design and testing methods