The equations of dislocation transport at finite crystal deformation were developed, with a special emphasis on a vector density representation of dislocations. A companion thermodynamic analysis yielded a generalized expression for the driving force of dislocations that depend on Mandel (Cauchy) stress in the reference (spatial) configurations and the contribution of the dislocation core energy to the free energy of the crystal. Our formulation relied on several dislocation density tensor measures linked to the incompatibility of the plastic distortion in the crystal. While previous works develop such tensors starting from the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient, we developed the tensor measures of the dislocation density and the dislocation flux from the additive decomposition of the displacement gradient and the crystal velocity fields. The two-point dislocation density measures defined by the referential curl of the plastic distortion and the spatial curl of the inverse elastic distortion and the associate dislocation currents were found to be more useful in deriving the referential and spatial forms of the transport equations for the vector density of dislocations. A few test problems showing the effect of finite deformation on the static dislocation fields are presented, with a particular attention to lattice rotation. The framework developed provides the theoretical basis for investigating crystal plasticity and dislocation patterning at the mesoscale, and it bears the potential for realistic comparison with experiments upon numerical solution. 
                        more » 
                        « less   
                    
                            
                            On the computational solution of vector-density based continuum dislocation dynamics models: a comparison of two plastic distortion and stress update algorithms
                        
                    
    
            Continuum dislocation dynamics models of mesoscale plasticity consist of dislocation transport-reaction equations coupled with crystal mechanics equations. The coupling between these two sets of equations is such that dislocation transport gives rise to the evolution of plastic distortion (strain), while the evolution of the latter fixes the stress from which the dislocation velocity field is found via a mobility law. Earlier solutions of these equations employed a staggered solution scheme for the two sets of equations in which the plastic distortion was updated via time integration of its rate, as found from Orowan’s law. In this work, we show that such a direct time integration scheme can suffer from accumulation of numerical errors. We introduce an alternative scheme based on field dislocation mechanics that ensures consistency between the plastic distortion and the dislocation content in the crystal. The new scheme is based on calculating the compatible and incompatible parts of the plastic distortion separately, and the incompatible part is calculated from the current dislocation density field. Stress field and dislocation transport calculations were implemented within a finite element based discretization of the governing equations, with the crystal mechanics part solved by a conventional Galerkin method and the dislocation transport equations by the least squares method. A simple test is first performed to show the accuracy of the two schemes for updating the plastic distortion, which shows that the solution method based on field dislocation mechanics is more accurate. This method then was used to simulate an austenitic steel crystal under uniaxial loading and multiple slip conditions. By considering dislocation interactions caused by junctions, a hardening rate similar to discrete dislocation dynamics simulation results was obtained. The simulations show that dislocations exhibit some self-organized structures as the strain is increased. 
        more » 
        « less   
        
    
                            - Award ID(s):
- 1663311
- PAR ID:
- 10283948
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International journal of plasticity
- Volume:
- 138
- ISSN:
- 0749-6419
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 102943
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
- 
            
- 
            Abstract The inherent inconsistency in identifying the phase field in the phase field crystal theory with the material mass and, simultaneously, with material distortion is discussed. In its current implementation, elastic relaxation in the phase field crystal occurs on a diffusive time scale through a dissipative permeation mode. The very same phase field distortion that is included in solid elasticity drives diffusive motion, resulting in a non physical relaxation of the phase field crystal. We present two alternative theories to remedy this shortcoming. In the first case, it is assumed that the phase field only determines the incompatible part of the elastic distortion, and therefore one is free to specify an additional compatible distortion so as to satisfy mechanical equilibrium at all times (in the quasi static limit). A numerical solution of the new model for the case of a dislocation dipole shows that, unlike the classical phase field crystal model, it can account for the known law of relative motion of the two dislocations in the dipole. The physical origin of the compatible strain in this new theory remains to be specified. Therefore, a second theory is presented in which an explicit coupling between independent distortion and phase field accounts for the time dependence of the relaxation of fluctuations in both. Preliminary details of its implementation are also given.more » « less
- 
            Modeling springback in sheet materials is challenging in aluminum alloys, especially when a complex strain path is applied. This paper presents results from pure bending experiments on AA 6016-T4 sheet material, where various plastic pre-strains were first applied prior to bending. A crystal plasticity based elasto-plastic selfconsistent (EPSC) model that includes the effect of backstress in the hardening law was used to predict final part shape after unloading. The backstress term in the model was calibrated using geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) content, measured experimentally by high resolution electron backscattered diffraction (HREBSD). The EPSC model predicted springforward angles for unstrained 1 mm AA 6016-T4 sheet with an error of 0.4% (0.3◦) in the worst case, while the J2 plasticity isotropic model overpredicted springforward angles by as much as 2.4% (2◦). For cases where uniaxial, plane-strain, and biaxial pre-strains were first imparted to the sheets before bending, the EPSC model with backstress accurately predicted the transition from springforward to springback, while the EPSC model without backstress did not. Backstress influence on model accuracy, which increased with greater pre-strain levels, appears to be correlated to the statistically stored dislocation (SSD) density computed by the model at the end of each pre-strain step.more » « less
- 
            Plasticity in body centered cubic (BCC) crystals is shown to be controlled by slow screw dislocation motion, owing to the thermally-activated process of kink pair nucleation and migration. Through three dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics simulations, this work unravels the mystery of how such slow screw dislocation behavior contributes to extremely rapid strain bursts in submicron BCC tungsten (W) pillars, which is typical of BCC metals. It is found that strain bursts are dominated by the motion of non-screw dislocations at low strain rate, but are more influenced by screw dislocations at high strain rate. The total, and partial strain burst magnitude due to screw dislocations alone, are found to exhibit rate dependence following a power law statistics with exponent of 0.65. Similar power law statistics are also obeyed for the standard deviation of the corresponding plastic strain rate. The role of screw dislocations is attributed to the changing nature of dislocation source operation at different strain rates. The corresponding spatial distribution of plastic deformation is also discussed based on the uniqueness of the simulation method in reproducing the distribution of slipped area and plastic strain with very high spatial resolution.more » « less
- 
            For the past century, dislocations have been understood to be the carriers of plastic deformation in crystalline solids. However, their collective behavior is still poorly understood. Progress in understanding the collective behavior of dislocations has primarily come in one of two modes: the simulation of systems of interacting discrete dislocations and the treatment of density measures of varying complexity that are considered as continuum fields. A summary of contemporary models of continuum dislocation dynamics is presented. These include, in order of complexity, the two-dimensional statistical theory of dislocations, the field dislocation mechanics treating the total Kröner–Nye tensor, vector density approaches that treat geometrically necessary dislocations on each slip system of a crystal, and high-order theories that examine the effect of dislocation curvature and distribution over orientation. Each of theories contain common themes, including statistical closure of the kinetic dislocation transport equations and treatment of dislocation reactions such as junction formation. An emphasis is placed on how these common themes rely on closure relations obtained by analysis of discrete dislocation dynamics experiments. The outlook of these various continuum theories of dislocation motion is then discussed.more » « less
 An official website of the United States government
An official website of the United States government 
				
			 
					 
					
 
                                    