Interaction between a screw dislocation and an elastic elliptical inhomogeneity with interfacial cracks

The elastic interaction between a screw dislocation and an elliptical inhomogeneity with interfacial cracks is studied. The screw dislocation may be located outside or inside the inhomogeneity. An efficient complex variable method for the complex multiply connected region is developed, and the general solutions to the problem are derived. As illustrative examples, solutions in explicit series form for complex potentials are presented in the case of one or two interfacial cracks. Image forces on the dislocation are calculated by using the Peach-Koehler formula. The influence of crack geometries and material properties on the image forces is evaluated and discussed. It is shown that the interfacial crack has a significant effect on the equilibrium position of the dislocation near an elliptical-arc interface. The main results indicate, when the length of the crack goes up to a critical value, the presence of the interfacial crack can change the interaction mechanism between a screw dislocation and an elliptical inclusion. The present solutions can include a number of previously known results as special cases.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(10272009 and 10472030) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province(02JJY2014)     

Multiscale dislocation dynamics analyses of laser shock peening in silicon single crystals

Although laser shock peening (LSP) has been applied in metals for property enhancement for a long time, its application on brittle materials has not been investigated so far. The present work is the first computational attempt to show that strong dislocation activity can be generated in silicon crystal by a modified LSP process. Multiscale dislocation dynamics plasticity (MDDP) simulations are conducted to predict the dislocation structure and stress/strain distribution in silicon crystal during LSP. In the modified LSP process, dislocation mobility of silicon and shock pressure is sufficiently high to generate and transport dislocation. The relationships between dislocation activities, the laser processing conditions and ablative coating material are systematically investigated. It is found that dislocation density, dislocation multiplication rate, and dislocation microstructure strongly depend on LSP processing conditions. This LSP process can also be applied in other brittle materials.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of crack-tip processes in copper

The crack tip processes in copper under mode II loading have been simulated by a molecular dynamics method. The nucleation, emission, dislocation free zone (DFZ) and pile-up of the dislocations are analyzed by using a suitable atom lattice configuration and Finnis & Sinclair potential. The simulated results show that the dislocation emitted always exhibits a dissociated fashion. The stress intensity factor for dislocation nucleation, DFZ and dissociated width of partial dislocations are strongly dependent on the loading rate. The stress distributions are in agreement with the elasticity solution before the dislocation emission, but are not in agreement after the emission. The dislocation can move at subsonic wave speed (less than the shear wave speed) or at transonic speed (greater than the shear wave speed but less than the longitudinal wave speed), but at the longitudinal wave speed the atom lattice breaks down. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China     

Interaction of a screw dislocation with a notch in a piezoelectric bi-material

Summary The electro-elastic interaction of a screw dislocation and a notch in a piezoelectric bi-material is analyzed. The electro-elastic fields induced by the dislocation are derived using the conformal mapping and the image-dislocation approach, where the solution for a piezoelectric bi-material without a notch is used as a base. The stress and the electric displacement intensity factors of the notch and the image force on the dislocation are given explicitly. We find that intensity factors are expressed in terms of the effective material constants, while the radial component of the image force is independent of the notch angle and the angular position of the dislocation in the polar coordinate system. Numerical results for the image force are provided for the use when one of the two media is purely elastic. They illustrate the behavior of the dislocation in the neighborhood of the notch.     

A non-singular continuum theory of dislocations

We develop a non-singular, self-consistent framework for computing the stress field and the total elastic energy of a general dislocation microstructure. The expressions are self-consistent in that the driving force defined as the negative derivative of the total energy with respect to the dislocation position, is equal to the force produced by stress, through the Peach-Koehler formula. The singularity intrinsic to the classical continuum theory is removed here by spreading the Burgers vector isotropically about every point on the dislocation line using a spreading function characterized by a single parameter a, the spreading radius. A particular form of the spreading function chosen here leads to simple analytic formulations for stress produced by straight dislocation segments, segment self and interaction energies, and forces on the segments. For any value a>0, the total energy and the stress remain finite everywhere, including on the dislocation lines themselves. Furthermore, the well-known singular expressions are recovered for a=0. The value of the spreading radius a can be selected for numerical convenience, to reduce the stiffness of the dislocation equations of motion. Alternatively, a can be chosen to match the atomistic and continuum energies of dislocation configurations.     

Analysis of dislocation nucleation from a crystal surface based on the Peierls-Nabarro dislocation model

Dislocation nucleation from a stressed crystal surface is analyzed based on the Peierls-Nabarro dislocation model. The variational boundary integral approach is used to obtain the profiles of the embryonic dislocations in various three-dimensional nucleation configurations. The stress-dependent activation energies required to activate dislocations from their stable to unstable saddle point configurations are determined. Compared to previous analyses of this type of problem based on continuum elastic dislocation theory, the present analysis eliminates the uncertain core cutoff parameter by allowing for the existence of an extended dislocation core as the embryonic dislocation evolves. Moreover, atomic information can be incorporated to reveal the dependence of the nucleation process on the profile of the atomic interlayer potential as compared to continuum elastic dislocation theory in which only elastic constants and Burgers vector are relevant. Finally, the presented methodology can also be readily used to study dislocation nucleation from the surface heterogeneities such as cracks, steps, and quantum structures of electronic devices.     

Surface versus bulk nucleation of dislocations during contact

The indentation of single crystals by a periodic array of flat rigid contacts is analyzed using discrete dislocation plasticity. Plane strain analyses are carried out with the dislocations all of edge character and modeled as line singularities in a linear elastic solid. The limiting cases of frictionless and perfectly sticking contacts are considered. The effects of contact size, dislocation source density, and dislocation obstacle density and strength on the evolution of the mean indentation pressure are explored, but the main focus is on contrasting the response of crystals having dislocation sources on the surface with that of crystals having dislocation sources in the bulk. When there are only bulk sources, the mean contact pressure for sufficiently large contacts is independent of the friction condition, whereas for sufficiently small contact sizes, there is a significant dependence on the friction condition. When there are only surface dislocation sources the mean contact pressure increases much more rapidly with indentation depth than when bulk sources are present and the mean contact pressure is very sensitive to the strength of the obstacles to dislocation glide. Also, on unloading a layer of tensile residual stress develops when surface dislocation sources dominate.     

Interaction of a screw dislocation with an interfacial edge crack in a two-phase piezoelectric material

The interaction of a screw dislocation with an interfacial edge crack in a two-phase piezoelectric medium is investigated. Closed-form solutions of the elastic and electrical fields induced by the screw dislocation are derived using the conformal mapping method in conjunction with the image principle. Based on the electroelastic fields derived, the stress and electric displacement intensity factors, the image force acting on the dislocation are given explicitly. We find that the stress and electric displacement intensity factors depend on the effective electroelastic material constants. In the case where one of two phases is purely elastic, the stress intensity factor and image force are plotted to illustrate the influences of electromechanical coupling effect, the position of the dislocation and the material properties on the interaction mechanism. The project supported by the Doctoral Foundation of Hebei Province (B2003113)     

高温应变下的晶界湮没机理的晶体相场法研究

应用晶体相场方法研究高温应变下的预熔化晶界位错湮没机理. 结果表明, 原预熔化晶界上的位错在应变作用下发生分离运动, 形成新晶界, 即亚晶界. 该过程的实质是生成了亚晶粒; 亚晶界的迁移过程的本质是亚晶粒长大、吞噬旧晶粒的过程; 亚晶界之间的湮没是亚晶粒完全吞噬旧晶粒过程的结束, 体系转变成为单个晶粒结构. 根据原子密度序参数沿x和y方向的投影值随应变量的变化特征, 可以揭示出高温应变作用下, 预熔化亚晶界相遇湮没的本质是两对极性相反的偶极子位错对发生二次湮没, 该湮没的微观过程是通过位错连续二次滑移湮没而实现的, 其湮没的速率较低温时的湮没速率要小许多.     

Anti-plane elastodynamic analysis of orthotropic planes weakened by several cracks

Stress analysis is carried out in an orthotropic plane containing a Volterra-type dislocation, the distributed dislocation technique is employed to obtain integral equations for an orthotropic plane weakened by cracks under time-harmonic anti-plane traction. The integral equations are of Cauchy singular type at the location of dislocation which are solved numerically. Several examples are solved and the stress intensity factors for multiple cracks with different configuration are obtained.