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 misor...

Zirconium alloys are widely used as the fuel cladding material in pressurised water reactors, accumulating a significant population of defects and dislocations from exposure to neutrons. We present interpret synchrotron microbeam X-ray diffraction measurements proton-irradiated Zircaloy-4, where we identify transient peak subsequent saturation dislocation density function exposure. This is expl...

This paper deals with the behavior of anti-plane shear crack in a piezoelectric layer bounded between two orthotropic half-planes within the framework of linear electroelasticity. The crack surfaces are assumed to be permeable or impermeable. The analysis is based on the stress fields caused by Volterra-type screw dislocation in the medium. Fourier transforms are used to reduce the dislocation ...

Accurate determination of nanomechanical materials properties is required for successful nanoscale materials characterization and subsequent design. Advancements in indentation science have been made in recent decades; however, widely varying nanoindentation hardness and elastic moduli are still currently reported in the literature on nominally similar samples, particularly at small depths or w...

An exactly solvable phase-field theory of dislocation dynamics, strain hardening and hysteresis in ductile single crystals is developed. The theory accounts for: an arbitrary number and arrangement of dislocation lines over a slip plane; the long-range elastic interactions between dislocation lines; the core structure of the dislocations resulting from a piecewise quadratic Peierls potential; t...