Stress field around dislocations

Work by Ed Webb, Jon Zimmerman, and Steve Seel at Sandia to compare thermomechanical properties like stress computed in atomistic simulations to their continuum counterparts. Traditional elasticity theory would produce a singularity in stress at the core of a dislocation like that shown here, whereas atomic-scale calculations and non-local elasticity theories avoid this shortcoming.

The figures show stress fields (σ_xx) surrounding the core of an edge dislocation in EAM Al calculated using the discrete (top) and Hardy (bottom) expressions for σ. The color contour maps represent peak tension in red at 5 GPa and peak compression in blue at −5 GPa. The Burgers vector direction (x) is horizontal in the figure.