The Effect of Multipoles on the Elasto-Plastic Properties of a Crystal: Theory and Three-Dimensional Dislocation Dynamics Modeling

Plastic deformation in metals is dominated by the interactions among dislocations and other defects inside the crystal. A large number of dislocation multipoles (dipoles, tripoles, quadrupoles, etc.) can form during plastic deformation. Depending on the relative position and the orientation of the dislocations, interactions in and between multipoles can change the elastoplastic properties of a material. The authors of this article investigate the effect of dislocation multipoles on the elastoplastic properties of a material. This is performed analytically under different multipole configurations (i.e., the distance between active glide planes and the signs of the dislocations) as well as using a three-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) code. The simulations show that multipoles exhibit a hardening/softening effect when the sign of the dislocations involved is the same, and a hardening effect only when the dislocations are of opposite sign to nearby ones. The distance between the two neighboring dislocations was also affecting the proportional limit (PL) for the material. Such hardening or flow stress (FS) results, as in this study, can be incorporated into larger-scale modeling work.

Automated summary

This study investigates the influence of dislocation multipoles on the elastoplastic properties of materials and finds that multipoles exhibit a hardening/softening effect when the sign of the dislocations involved is the same and a hardening effect when the dislocations are of opposite sign to nearby ones. The distance between neighboring dislocations also affects the proportional limit of the material.