Glissile junctions: Insights from discrete dislocation dynamics and development of a continuum model

Markus Stricker

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

The understanding of the mechanisms governing plastic deformation of metals is the understanding of dislocation motion from single dislocations to collective behavior. At first the method of Discrete Dislocation Dynamics is reviewed with an example of irreversible dislocation motion in cyclic loading due to strain gradients. Subsequently, the method is used to show that glissile junctions are an active dislocation source mechanism, contributing not only significantly to the dislocation density, but also to the macroscopic plastic strain. This discovery is then coarse-grained into a dislocation density rate formulation and implemented in a continuum theory within the framework DAMASK. The results show that it is possible to populate initially dislocation density free glide systems. With the proposed extension, the continuum model is able to account for topological changes observed in the discrete microstructure.