Breakdown in high-speed edge dislocation motion

Abstract

Recent work of Earmme and Weiner (1973, 1974) has shown that the regular dislocation motion in a one-dimensional atomistic crystal model breaks down when a critical dislocation velocity, termed the breakdown velocity, is reached and that this critical velocity is less than the speed of sound in the linear chain. In this paper, computer simulation results are presented for the motion of an edge dislocation in an idealized two-dimensional crystal model which indicate that breakdown occurs in this case also when the dislocation velocity approaches the speed of long longitudinal waves.