AbstractThermal stresses developed in a dendritic silicon crystal ribbon have been shown to cause plastic deformation and residual stresses in the ribbon. This paper presents an implementation of a numerical model proposed for thermo‐elasto‐plastic behaviour of a material. The model has been used to study the effects of plasticity of silicon on the residual stresses. The material properties required to implement this model are all assumed, and the response of the material to the variations in these assumed parameters of the constitutive law and in the finite element mesh is investigated. The steady state growth process is observed to be periodic with non‐zero residual stresses. Numerical difficulties are also encountered in the computer solution process, resulting in sharp jumps and large oscillations in the stress resp