The motion of screw dislocations in crystalline materials undergoing antiplane shear: Glide, cross-slip, fine cross-slip (Q1805995)

The authors discuss the motion of dislocations within the nonlinear theory of elasticity. In particular, focussing on the kinetics of screw dislocations in the case of finite antiplane shear, they present a fairly complete theory for the initiation and kinetics of glide and cross-slip motions. The theory is based essentially on the so-called configurational forces [cf. \textit{G. A. Maugin} and \textit{C. Trimarco}, Arch. Mech. 47, No. 1, 81-99 (1995; Zbl 0822.73005)], and on the exploitation of the balance law for such configurational forces in conjunction with a mechanical version of the second law of thermodynamics that accounts for the rate at which configurational forces perform work. This requires a careful discussion of energetic changes in control volumes containing dislocations, as energy itself may become infinite. An expression is recovered for the Peach-Koehler force within this framework. The principle of maximal dissipation (Hill-Mandel) is exploited in the formulation of the initiation criteria. Although the authors have a tendency to present many ideas and arguments as original, they largely build on the works of others, including contemporaries. The paper is unnecessarily discursive and long, (e.g., the introduction-summary itself is four pages long).