Amethodisdevelopedforcyclicelastoplasticanalysisacrossmicro/meso/macroscaleswhichiseffectiveforthequantitativetransitionofphysicalvariablesandforevaluatingthesizeeffectsofmicrostruc-tures.Byusingtheimprovedself-consistentsehemeproposedbyFanandcarryingoutadelicatemesoscop-icanalysisbasedonashear-lagmodel,thesizeeffectsincludingthethicknessofhardandsoftlayersrelativetotheinclusiondimensionareobtainedontheoverallelastoplasticresponsesofmaterialsupto50cycles.Thedominantcharacteristicsoftheanalysisrarethatthecharacteristicdimensionsofamicrostructuresuchasthethicknessofthelayersandtheinclusiondimensioncanbeexplicitlyincorporatedintotheformulation.Resultsofnumericalanalysisusingonly4plasticconstantsshowthatthethickerthelayerrelativetothein-clusionsize,thesofterthematerialinproducingmoreplasticstrainvaluesforagivenappliedstressampli-tude.Thisisinagreementwiththewell-knownexperimentalrulethattheyieldstrengthoflayeredstructuresisinverselyproportionultothesquarerootofthespacingbetweenlayers.Itisfoundthatratchetingdependsverymuchonthesizeofthelayered-structureandthatthethinnertherelativethicknessofthelayerthelesstheratchetiugdisplacement.Thisfindingmaybeusedtoexplainwhyphenomenologicalmodelsonratchetingarenotquitesuccessfulsofar,indicatingthesignificanceofaerossscaleanalysisinunderstandingissueswhichhaveexistedforalongtime.
