The Orowan mechanism in anisotropic crystals

Abstract

The static equilibrium configurations of a dislocation bypassing a periodic row of impenetrable circular obstacles were obtained for various crystals by means of a self-stress method wherein the elastic anisotropy of the crystal and the dislocation self-interaction could be taken into account. A correlation was developed from the results which related the Orowan stress values to the obstacle size and spacing. This correlation demands two parameters to account for the anisotropy, and these appear as a suitably defined anisotropic shear modulus and Poisson's ratio. The self-interactions are taken into account by a single logarithmic parameter which is the harmonic mean of the obstacle size and spacing, and is independent of anisotropy. The shapes of the bowing dislocation loops are strongly influenced by the anisotropy and interactions. The combined effects on shape can bo simply described in the line-tension framework, using the de Wit—Koehler solutions. In particular, the swept areas and overall profiles of the shapes obtained in this investigation can be matched over a wido range of conditions by do Wit—Koehler shapes using a line tension proportional to the logarithm of the obstacle spacing.