Statistical Thermodynamics of Dislocations in Solids

Abstract

This review is a simplified summary of the thermodynamic dislocation theory, with special emphasis on the role of an effective temperature. Materials scientists, for decades, have asserted that statistical thermodynamics is not applicable to dislocations. By use of simple, first-principles analyses and comparisons with experimental data, I argue that these scientists have been wrong, and that this venerable field urgently needs to be revitalized because of its wide-ranging fundamental and technological importance. In addition to describing recent progress in understanding strain hardening, yielding, shear banding, and the like, I argue that the thermodynamic dislocation theory can lead to a much needed, first-principles understanding of brittle and ductile fracture in crystalline solids.

arXiv commentarXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1810.00286

References in corpus (12)

• Deformation and Failure of Amorphous Solidlike Materials
• Dislocation Networks and the Microstructural Origin of Strain Hardening
• Activated dynamics and effective temperature in a steady state sheared glass
• Thermodynamic dislocation theory of high-temperature deformation in aluminum and steel
• Thermal Effects in Dislocation Theory
• Thermodynamic theory of dislocation-enabled plasticity
• Scaling Confirmation of the Thermodynamic Dislocation Theory
• Statistical Thermodynamics of Crystal Plasticity
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• Thermodynamic analysis of the Livermore molecular-dynamics simulations of dislocation-mediated plasticity
• Brittle-Ductile Transitions in a Metallic Glass
• Fracture Toughness of Crystalline Solids