Bending crystals: Emergence of fractal dislocation structures
Abstract
We provide a minimal continuum model for mesoscale plasticity, explaining the cellular dislocation structures observed in deformed crystals. Our dislocation density tensor evolves from random, smooth initial conditions to form self-similar structures strikingly similar to those seen experimentally-reproducing both the fractal morphologies and some features of the scaling of cell sizes and misorientations analyzed experimentally. Our model provides a framework for understanding emergent dislocation structures on the mesoscale, a bridge across a computationally demanding mesoscale gap in the multiscale modeling program, and a new example of self-similar structure formation in nonequilibrium systems. © 2010 The American Physical Society.
Date Published
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Volume
105
Issue
10
URL
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-77956335160&doi=10.1103%2fPhysRevLett.105.105501&partnerID=40&md5=5446cedd24710302d31bc32a0c40c2c3
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.105501
Research Area
Group (Lab)
James Sethna Group