The paper deals with research carried out into plastic deformation of a heavy-wall pipe made of nanoparticle reinforced copper-based alloy. We present an original approach which combines methods of crystal plasticity and deformable solid mechanics, thereby allowing to study the stress-strain state of the heavy-wall pipe strengthened with incoherent nanoparticles using a homogeneous internal pressure. Dependences are constructed for the yielding area and the pressure, the limit of elasto-plastic resistance is obtained for the heavy-wall pipe and its deformation degree is described. It is shown that the particle size has an effect on strength properties of the material.