Dislocation processes

Since some earlier work based on anisotropic elasticity theory had not been successful in describing the observed mechanical behaviour of NiAl (for an overview see [11]), several studies have addressed dislocation processes on the atomic length scale [6, 7, 8]. Their findings are encouraging for the use of atomistic methods, since they could explain several of the experimental observations. Nevertheless, most of the quantitative data they obtained are somewhat suspicious. For example, the Peierls stresses of the (100) and (111) dislocations are rather similar [6] and far too low to explain the measured yield stresses in hard oriented crystals. 

Zhou MY, Schekman R (1999) The engagement of Sec61p in the ER dislocation process. Mol Cell 4 925-934... 

If only a few possible conformations exist, coupled dislocation processes occur. These change to single independent rate processes with increasing temperature. Finally all particles take part in molecular dislocation processes. There must be a saturation... 

AU =15 kcal/gmol (coupled dislocation processes, mobility of molecular segments fixed near the surface of crystals or a process). 

Diffusion as a molecular dislocation process has also been mentioned by Muller and Hellmuthsl) and consistently leads to the hopping theory of describing ionic conductivity52 as a function of the temperature. 

Fig. 27. Coupled molecular dislocation processes (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) which lead to the conformation AB from the initial conformation AS (out of plane positions)...

In this section, the basic dislocation processes involved in the progressive deformation of a crystalline solid are discussed briefly to provide background for the detailed discussion of the deformation microstructures observed by TEM in specific minerals to follow. Particular attention is given to relating the nucleation, glide, climb, multiplication, and interaction of dislocations to the various stages of the creep and stress-strain curves. More discussion can be found in the texts referred to in Section 9.1. 

In a constant strain-rate experiment, the rapid multiplication of dislocations following the yield point can produce more mobile dislocations than are necessary to maintain the imposed strain-rate and consequently the stress drops. The deformation will continue at a constant stress provided any decrease in u is compensated by an increase in iom, or vice versa. However, in general, the stress rises with increasing strain. The slope (dajdt) of the stress-strain curve is determined by the competition between two dislocation processes namely, work-hardening and recovery, which we now consider briefly. 

The stress-strain behavior of ceramic polycrystals is substantially different from single crystals. The same dislocation processes proceed within the individual grains but these must be constrained by the deformation of the adjacent grains. This constraint increases the difficulty of plastic deformation in polycrystals compared to the respective single crystals. As seen in Chapter 2, a general strain must involve six components, but only five will be independent at constant volume (e,=constant). This implies that a material must have at least five independent slip systems before it can undergo an arbitrary strain. A slip system is independent if the same strain cannot be obtained from a combination of slip on other systems. The lack of a sufficient number of independent slip systems is the reason why ceramics that are ductile when stressed in certain orientations as single crystals are often brittle as polycrystals. This scarcity of slip systems also leads to the formation of stress concentrations and subsequent crack formation. Various mechanisms have been postulated for crack nucleation by the pile-up of dislocations, as shown in Fig. 6.24. In these examples, the dislocation pile-up at a boundary or slip-band intersection leads to a stress concentration that is sufficient to nucleate a crack. 

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