Mechanistic Approach to Plasticity:

Partial Dislocations and Dislocation Interaction

(MSE 205 : Mechanical Behavior of Materials)

Pradipta Ghosh
Materials Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
Gandhinagar

Reference Text: Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Meyers and Chawla

Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Courtney
Mechanical metallurgy, GE Dieter
Introduction to Dislocations, Hull and Bacon
Dislocations in different crystal structure
Peierls-Nabarro lattice friction stress

  2a 
 f  G exp  
 1   b 
a

a = spacing between planes

b = period in slip direction, Burgers vector

Slip planes = planes with largest spacing (for most cases these are closed packed planes
Slip direction = close packed directions
Crystal Slip Slip Number of non- Slip direction Number of slip
structure plane Direction parallel planes per plane system
FCC {111} <1-10> 4 3 12
BCC {110} <-111> 6 2 12
{112} <11-1> 12 1 12
{123} <11-1> 24 1 24
HCP {0001) <11-20> 1 3 3
{10-10} <11-20> 3 1 3
(10-11} <11-20> 6 1 6
For ideal HCP (close packing of spherical balls), c/a= (8/3)^(1/2)=1.633
For c/a ≥ 1.633, slip on {0001} basal plane is favoured.
For c/a ≤ 1.633, slip on prismatic and pyramidal planes may be favoured.
a
11  20   a 10  10   a 01  10  Dissociation of a perfect dislocation into Shockley partials
3 3 3

Partial dislocations For a perfect dislocation there is perfect alignment of atom planes
above and below the slip planes with in the dislocation loop
A stacking fault is created by dissociation of a perfect dislocation
into two imperfect dislocations, where the slip plane arrangement
deviates from equilibrium state and the translation does not produce
a complete lattice displacement of atom.
Extended Dislocation
A A
B B
C C
A A
B C HCP
C A
Heidenreich and Shockley A B

a2/2 → a2/6 + a2/6

b1 → b2 + b 3
Dissociation of a perfect dislocation into partials
a/2[0-11] → a/6[1-21] +a/6[-1-12] Frank’s rule
is favored because b12 > b22 + b32
 Layer A Layer B Layer C

FCC – ABCABC…

FCC – ABAB…/ ACAC…

 Stacking Fault Energy

Hull and Bacon

Courtney
Thompson tetrahedron
b2 b3 Dissociation of dislocation is independent of
its character (edge, screw or mixed)

Unlike a perfect screw dislocation, the extended

Screw dislocation only glides in {111} plane

Gb2b3
 SFE 
2d

The partial dislocations exist as a unit and thus

the screw dislocation does not cross slip unless
the partials recombine into a perfect dislocation.
This provides an energy barrier to cross slip.
 Metal γ (mJ/m2) a0 (nm) b (nm) G (GPa) d (nm)
Al 166 0.41 0.286 26.1 1
Cu 78 0.367 0.255 48.3 3.2
Au 45 0.408 0.288 27
Ni 128 0.352 0.249 76 2.9
Ag 22 0.409 0.289 30.3 9

Meyers and Chawla

Effect of stacking fault energy on
dislocation structure
 Frank partial or sessile dislocations
Since the Burgers vector is not in slip plane
and glide must be restricted to the plane
of the SF, the dislocation can not move by
glide and is immobile. It can only move by
climb (process of diffusion of atoms or
vacancies)
Intrinsic SF Extrinsic or double SF
A closed dislocation loop of a Frank partial
dislocation can be produced by the collapse
b = a/3 [111]
of a platelet of vacancies, it may arise from
the local supersaturation of vacancies
produced by rapid quenching or by the
displacement cascades formed by irradiation
with energetic atomic particles.

By convention platelet of vacancies is called

a negative Frank dislocation.
A positive Frank dislocation may
be formed by the precipitation of a
close-packed platelet of interstitial atoms, as
produced by irradiation damage.

Both positive and negative Frank loops

contain stacking faults.
 Unfaulting reaction

Intrinsic SF Extrinsic or double SF, Positive Frank Partial

Negative Frank Partial
Unfaulting reaction will be energetically favorable
DA+BD → BA <-110> type Lomer dislocation, 50 % reduction in energy
Glide plane (100), sessile

DB+AC → <100> type Hirth lock

Lomer-Cottrell Lock (Sessile dislocations) Stair-rod or stairway dislocation

b12 = a2/6 + b22 = a2/6 > b32 = a2/18

Frank’s rule

The Burgers vector αβ of the stair-rod partial is

perpendicular to the dislocation line and does
not lie in either of the two {111} planes of the
adjacent faults. Thus, it cannot glide on these
planes, and the {100} plane which contains the
line and its Burgers vector is not a slip plane.
The dislocation is sessile.

But the Burgers vector is not imperfect, i.e.,

it will give a full translation of atoms.
 Conservative and Non-conservative motion of dislocations

Conservative – Glide of dislocation on slip plane

Non-conservative - Climb of dislocations (involves diffusive motion of atoms)
Although dislocation tries to minimize its total length, nevertheless there is always a certain
number of jogs on each dislocation and, in absence of an applied stress, the number of
‘’positive’’ and ‘’negative’’ jogs is about the same.

+ve climb – Extra plane moves upward

(promoted by compressive stress)
-ve climb – Extra plane moves downward
(promoted by tensile stress)
n j  n0 exp U j / kT 
Uc  U j Uv Um

Uj = nucleation energy of Jog (~1 eV)

Uc = activation energy for climb
Uv , Um = activation energy for formation and migration of vacancy

Climb is not possible for screw dislocation since there is no extra half plane.
Screw dislocation can overcome an obstacle by cross slip (conservative motion); however
For edge dislocation non-conservative dislocation climb is essential.
Intersection of moving dislocations – (produce kink or jog) Kink –step in slip plane
Jog – step out of slip plane

Edge Dislocations

Edge jog

As the orientation of dislocation line is changed at the jog PP’, the force
acting on it due to external stress field will change. If this force is less than
the force on AP and P’B segment of dislocation, then jog will move at a slower
speed and hence restrain the motion of remainder of dislocation line.

Jogs have a height of one lattice spacing (unit jog) and a characteristic energy of ~1 eV
associated with increase in dislocation line length.
 Intersection of Edge dislocations with parallel burgers vector

Both the steps are in the slip plane = kinks

Jogs in pure edge dislocations do not (significantly) affect the subsequent glide of the dislocation.
 Intersection of Edge and Screw dislocation Intersection of Screw dislocations

Jog Kink

Immobile Jog

A straight screw dislocation can move on any slip plane that contains the dislocation line.
However, a jogged screw dislocation need non-conservative motion of its edge component for motion of
the full dislocation line. The jogs in screw dislocations are the most significant source of hardening.

Dieter
A jog that produces vacancies during its motion is called a vacancy jog, while a jog that produces
interstitials during its motion is called an interstitial jog.

The dislocations being pinned at the jogs can

bow out under the application of stress (Fig. b).
Two relatively closely-spaced jogs experience a
net sideways force from the line tension of the
dislocation segments meeting at the jog (Fig. c)
making them glide together resulting in
annihilation or formation of jog of twice the
unit length. The remaining jogs will be of approx.
uniform spacing.

Glide of jogged screw dislocation producing

trails of point defects.

Hull and Bacon, Introduction to Dislocations

 Based on the height of the jog three situations may arise
(a) the jog can be dragged along by the dislocation climb,
(b) the two sections of dislocations can loop around the jog to
form a dipole
(c) the two sections of the dislocations can operate as individual
sources as discussed below

Composite Jog

If the height of a composite jog is several Burgers

vectors such that the stress field of the components
AP and P’B do not interact significantly, then they
can move independently and continued slip does
not require non-conservative climb.
several b
Dislocations in Ceramics
The dislocations in ceramics generally have high energy, due to large shear modulus and Burgers
vector (U~ Gb2/2). The Peierls-Nabarro stress is very high, due to directionality of bonding in ionic
and covalent structures. The dislocation interaction and reactions occur in a manner similar to that
in metals and intermetallics.
 Dislocation Multiplication
L0 =ρ-1/2=10 μm
In well annealed crystals typical dislocation density ρ ~ 1010 m-2.
On plastic deformation the dislocation density gradually increase and reaches a value ρ~1015 m-2.
Lf =ρ-1/2= 30 nm

This rapid multiplication of dislocations leads to strain/ work hardening.

In freshly grown crystals there are two main sources of dislocations

(1) Dislocations present in the seed crystals or other surfaces used to initiate the growth of the
of the crystal
(2) Accidental nucleation of dislocations during growth process.
(a) Heterogeneous nucleation due to internal stress generation by impurities,
thermal contraction, etc.,
(b) Impingement of different parts of the growing interfaces
(c) formation and subsequent movement of dislocation loops formed by the collapse of
vacancy platelets.
 Homogeneous nucleation of dislocation
Cottrell 1953
τ
Hull and Bacon

Radius = r
Burgers vector = b

τ
1 2  2r 
Increase in elastic energy of the system = E = Gb r ln   r 2b
2  r0 

Dislocation line energy Work done

The energy increases with r reaching a maximum when dE/dr=0 at the critical radius rc and then
decreases for increasing r.
Gb   2rc  
rc  ln   1
4   r0  
1   2r  
Ec  Gb 2 rc ln c   1
4   r0  
For typical yield stress τ~G/1000, rc~500b (for r0~2b) and Ec~650 Gb3 (= 3 keV). Thermal fluctuations
can provide energy of kT=1/40 eV at room temperature. Thus homogeneous nucleation cannot occur
at the yield stress.
Frank Read (F-R) sources

Gb

2r

Operation of Frank Read source in Silicon

Hull and Bacon

 Frank Read sources does not
explain the broadening of slip bands
W1→W2
Lateral growth of glide bands in LiF
[Hull-Bacon, Gilman and Johnston (1962)]

Cross slip of screw dislocations leading

to formation of Frank Read sources F-R sources Primary slip plane

Primary slip plane

Dislocation pileups
0.75L b = nbe

F - R source
L

Generally possible for metals with low stacking fault energy (SFE), because cross slip is difficult. For
an edge dislocations cross-slip is not possible and they can form the pile up.
Assuming the dislocations of edge character and parallel, the resulting force acting on the ith
dislocation can be written as
Gb 2
b   0
i  0 2 1  xi  x j 
i j
where n is the number of dislocations in the pile-up. Solving the n equations with n unkowns
(xi-xj) for the dislocations behind the lead dislocation one can obtain the positions of the
dislocations. [Eshelby, Frank and Nabarro, Phil. Mag. Vol 42(1951) pp. 351]

The number of dislocations that can be present between source and obstacle over a length L is
kL
n k = 1 for screw dislocations and (1-v) for edge dislocations
Gb
 Force on the lead dislocation = nbeτ
Stress acting on the lead dislocation = nτ (τ is the applied stress)


1/ 2
3 L
     sin  cos
2 r  2
1/ 2 1/ 2
2 L L
 max     ; OP     at θ=70.50
3r  r

Grain boundaries (GB) as source of dislocations

GB Emission of dislocations from GBs

[Meyers and Chawla]

Irregularities at the boundaries (ledges or steps)

could be responsible for generation of dislocations
into the grains.
Orowan Equation for strain

γ = ρbl l = mean distance travelled by dislocation

γ = kρbl k = correction factor of orientation of slip planes
d dl d
 b  bl
dt dt dt

Dislocation arrangement with increasing dislocation density

KGb KGb
D 
   0  
D = cell diameter
Dislocation spacing in the cell walls decreases
with increasing ρ and plastic strain.

[Courtney]
ε = 1% ε = 9%