Thermally activated plastic glide

The two main theories of thermally activated plastic glide in ductile crystals, that of Becker and that of Mott and Nabarro, differ in their predictions of the stress exponent of the activation energy. But when the Becker theory is applied to the problem of the Mott-Nabarro theory, that is the overcoming of a single localized obstacle by a short segment of dislocation line, and account is taken of the stress relaxation brought about by the movement of the segment up to the obstacle, this modified Becker theory gives the same stress exponent as the Mott-Nabarro theory. The realistic situation, however, is that of long dislocation lines making their way through a forest of obstacles. In this case the interactions between different segments of these lines considerably modify the problem. They lead to load shedding, mechanical activation and large glide avalanches. Under these conditions the original form of the Becker theory, with an unmodified stress exponent, is applicable.