  Results of recent large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of
dislocation-mediated solid plasticity are campared with predictions of the
statistical thermodynamic theory of these phenomena. These computational and
theoretical analyses are in substantial agreement with each other in both their
descriptions of strain-rate dependent steady plastic flow and of a transient
stress peak associated with initially small densities of dislocations. The
comparisons between the numerical simulations and basic theory reveal
inconsistencies in some conventional phenomenological descriptions of solid
plasticity.
