IWNET12
IWNET12
Coarse-Graining of Dislocation-Mediated Plasticity
Marleen Kooiman1, Marc G. D. Geers1 and Markus Hütter1
1 Materials Technology (MaTe), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology,
P. O. Box 513, NL5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Abstract
Many technological applications, ranging from cars to micro-electronic devices, fail due to inelastic deformation
of metals. Even though there is a vast amount of knowledge on the deformation of metals, today's technological
innovations towards smaller, lighter and smarter components also demand for more reliability and predictability.
Therefore, new models of metal plasticity, based on microscopic descriptions, are called for. Plastic deformation
in metals occurs due to the motion of dislocations, i.e. line-like defects in the crystal structure. On a discrete
level, it is quite well understood what a dislocation is, how individual dislocations move under an applied stress,
and how they interact. However, in engineering applications, one is interested in plastic deformation at a larger
scale, and hence in the collective arrangement and motion of dislocations. We try to construct the evolution
equation for the dislocation density from a microscopic description of dislocations. To that end, non-equilibrium
statistical mechanics and projection-operator techniques are used for coarse graining, as also advocated in the
context of the General Equation for the Non-Equilibrium Reversible-Irreversible Coupling (GENERIC). At
present, the focus is on the calculation of the free energy.
E-mail: M.Kooiman@tue.nl

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