No Arabic abstract
This paper focuses on the connections between four stochastic and deterministic models for the motion of straight screw dislocations. Starting from a description of screw dislocation motion as interacting random walks on a lattice, we prove explicit estimates of the distance between solutions of this model, an SDE system for the dislocation positions, and two deterministic mean-field models describing the dislocation density. The proof of these estimates uses a collection of various techniques in analysis and probability theory, including a novel approach to establish propagation-of-chaos on a spatially discrete model. The estimates are non-asymptotic and explicit in terms of four parameters: the lattice spacing, the number of dislocations, the dislocation core size, and the temperature. This work is a first step in exploring this parameter space with the ultimate aim to connect and quantify the relationships between the many different dislocation models present in the literature.
We perform the discrete-to-continuum limit passage for a microscopic model describing the time evolution of dislocations in a one dimensional setting. This answers the related open question raised by Geers et al. in [GPPS13]. The proof of the upscaling procedure (i.e. the discrete-to-continuum passage) relies on the gradient flow structure of both the discrete and continuous energies of dislocations set in a suitable evolutionary variational inequality framework. Moreover, the convexity and $Gamma$-convergence of the respective energies are properties of paramount importance for our arguments.
We show existence of solutions for the equations of static atomistic nonlinear elasticity theory on a bounded domain with prescribed boundary values. We also show their convergence to the solutions of continuum nonlinear elasticity theory, with energy density given by the Cauchy-Born rule, as the interatomic distances tend to zero. These results hold for small data close to a stable lattice for general finite range interaction potentials. We also discuss the notion of stability in detail.
In this work we investigate the transient solidification of a Lennard-Jones liquid using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and continuum heat transfer theory. The simulations are performed in slab-shaped boxes, where a cold thermostat placed at the centre of the box drives the solidification of the liquid. Two well-defined solid fronts propagate outwards from the centre towards the ends of the box until solidification is completed. A continuum phase change model that accounts for the difference between the solid and the liquid densities is formulated to describe the evolution of the temperature and the position of the solidification front. Simulation results for a small and a large nanoscale system, of sizes $30.27$,nm and $60.54$,nm, are compared with the predictions of the theoretical model. Following a transient period of $sim$20-40 ps and a displacement of the solidification front of 1-2.5 nm we find that the simulations and the continuum theory show good agreement. We use this fact to combine the simulation and theoretical approaches to design a simple procedure to calculate the latent heat of the material. We also perform simulations of the homogeneous freezing process, i.e. in the absence of a temperature gradient and at constant temperature, by quenching the liquid at supercooled temperatures. We demonstrate that the solidification rate of homogenous freezing is much faster than the one obtained under a thermal gradient for systems of the same size subject to the same thermostat temperature. Our study and conclusions should be of general interest to a wide range of atomistic solids.
Molecular static simulations have been performed to study the interaction between a single dislocation and a substitutional Al solute atom in a pure crystal of Ni. When the Al solute is situated at intermediate distance from the slip plane, we find that both edge and screw dislocations experiment a non-negligible binding energy. We show that for such length scale the description of the elasticity theory can be improved by taking into account the spreading of dislocation cores via the Peierls-Nabarro model.
Dislocation velocities and mobilities are studied by Molecular Dynamics simulations for edge and screw dislocations in pure aluminum and nickel, and edge dislocations in Al-2.5%Mg and Al-5.0%Mg random substitutional alloys using EAM potentials. In the pure materials, the velocities of all dislocations are close to linear with the ratio of (applied stress)/(temperature) at low velocities, consistent with phonon drag models and quantitative agreement with experiment is obtained for the mobility in Al. At higher velocities, different behavior is observed. The edge dislocation velocity remains dependent solely on (applied stress)/(temperature) up to approximately 1.0 MPa/K, and approaches a plateau velocity that is lower than the smallest forbidden speed predicted by continuum models. In contrast, above a velocity around half of the smallest continuum wave speed, the screw dislocation damping has a contribution dependent solely on stress with a functional form close to that predicted by a radiation damping model of Eshelby. At the highest applied stresses, there are several regimes of nearly constant (transonic or supersonic) velocity separated by velocity gaps in the vicinity of forbidden velocities; various modes of dislocation disintegration and destabilization were also encountered in this regime. In the alloy systems, there is a temperature- and concentration-dependent pinning regime where the velocity drops sharply below the pure metal velocity. Above the pinning regime but at moderate stresses, the velocity is again linear in (applied stress)/(temperature) but with a lower mobility than in the pure metal.