Size effects in stress penetration and dynamics of dislocations: Fe-Ni-Cr steel

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics modeling to explore how nanoscale size influences dislocation movement in Fe-Ni-Cr steel, revealing the importance of internal virial stresses and stress penetration dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a size-dependent model of dislocation dynamics in FCC steel, emphasizing the role of internal virial stresses and stress wave propagation.

Findings

Dislocation velocity correlates with local internal shear stress, not external pressure.

Stress penetration follows a damped harmonic oscillator model with size-dependent oscillation frequency.

Minimal stress for dislocation movement (Peierls stress) is 0.75 GPa.

Abstract

Movement of edge (line) dislocations in FCC steel 310S is shown to depend on the size on nanoscale structures, based on modeling withing molecular dynamics (MD). The effect is attributed to time (and size) dependencies of pressure propagation into the medium interior. The observation is crucial in interpreting any MD studies of pressure effects since these are governed by time-dependent internal virial stresses. In particular velocity of dislocations scales well with value of local internal shear component of virial stress $S_{xy}$ and not with external shear pressure. Dynamics of stress penetration is described well within the model of damped harmonic oscillator, where characteristic oscillation frequency depends on number of crystallographic layers in direction along the wave propagation while the speed of stress propagation is the speed of sound. The minimal stress required for dislocation movement (Peierls stress) is determined to be 0.75 GPa. Pressure and temperature effects on dislocation movement are systematically investigated.