Definition of Work Hardening

What is Work Hardening
Increasing the dislocation density will increase the yield strength.

Work Hardening is a difficult process to understand. but, once you understand the process, you will never forget.

Work hardening is a process when the metal is strained beyond its original yield point. As the material is filled up with more dislocations (increasing dislocation density), more dislocations are prevented to develop more dislocation-formation. This resistance is called nucleating and thus, the resistance to plastic deformation. Therefore, the material has been strengthened. However, the dislocation density cannot be increased to an infinitely high value as the crystalline structure will disappear. Usually, work hardening is done to a reasonably high melting point material by using cold rolling or cold drawing.