arXiv subjects

Dénes Berta

Publications and source records attributed to Dénes Berta.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Dislocation distribution near a wall within the framework of the continuum theory of curved dislocations

A recently proposed generalised continuum theory of curved dislocations describes the spatial and temporal evolution of statistically stored and geometrically necessary dislocation densities as well as the curvature. The dynamics follow from a scalar plastic potential that constrains the allowed velocity fields and leads to a phase field like formulation with a nontrivial mobility function. Although conceptually related to strain gradient plasticity, the theory differs by introducing an intrinsic, evolving length scale given by the dislocation spacing. In this paper, we determine three key material independent parameters of this continuum theory by quantitatively comparing its predictions with discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) simulations. To achieve this, we impose a narrow impenetrable wall inside the simulation volume, which blocks dislocation motion and generates characteristic spatial variations of the dislocation density fields under external loading. We show that for this geometry, the continuum equations reduce to a form that can be solved efficiently via direct numerical integration. The resulting stationary distributions of total and geometrically necessary dislocation densities are then compared to extensive 2D and 3D DDD simulations. This comparison allows us to extract the parameters that govern the back stress, the density gradient coupling, and the flow stress relation. Our results demonstrate that the continuum theory quantitatively captures the DDD observed structure of the dislocation pile up near the wall and therefore provides a reliable mesoscale description. The wall loading setup further serves as a benchmark problem to validate numerical implementations of the continuum theory in more general geometries.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Dislocation Dynamics and Shape in High Entropy Alloys: the Influence of Stress Correlations, Long-Range Interactions and Anisotropy

High entropy alloys gained significant scientific interest in recent years due to their enhanced mechanical properties including high yield strength combined with outstanding ductility. The strength of these materials originates from their highly heterogeneous pinning stress fields that hinder dislocation glide, that is, plastic deformation. This work investigates how the correlations and the anisotropy of the pinning stresses, and the long-range nature and the anisotropy of dislocation interactions influence the propagation of dislocations and the depinning transition in these alloys. Furthermore, it is studied how the impact of these factors manifest in the shape of dislocations. The implications to the wider scope of generic disordered systems and to possible experimental applications are also discussed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Center vortices and localized Dirac modes in the deconfined phase of (2+1)-dimensional lattice $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory

We study the deconfinement transition in (2+1)-dimensional lattice $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory both as a percolation transition of center vortices and as a localization transition for the low-lying Dirac modes. We study in detail the critical properties of the Anderson transition in the Dirac spectrum in the deconfined phase, showing that it is of BKT type; and the critical properties of the center-vortex percolation transition, showing that they differ from those of ordinary two-dimensional percolation. We then study the relation between localized modes and center vortices in the deconfined phase, identifying the simple center-vortex structures that mainly support the localized Dirac modes. As the system transitions to the confined phase, center vortices merge together into an infinite cluster, causing the low Dirac modes to delocalize.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2024

Deciphering Acoustic Emission with Machine Learning

Acoustic emission signals have been shown to accompany avalanche-like events in materials, such as dislocation avalanches in crystalline solids, collapse of voids in porous matter or domain wall movement in ferroics. The data provided by acoustic emission measurements is tremendously rich, but it is rather challenging to precisely connect it to the characteristics of the triggering avalanche. In our work we propose a machine learning based method with which one can infer microscopic details of dislocation avalanches in micropillar compression tests from merely acoustic emission data. As it is demonstrated in the paper, this approach is suitable for the prediction of the force-time response as it can provide outstanding prediction for the temporal location of avalanches and can also predict the magnitude of individual deformation events. Various descriptors (including frequency dependent and independent ones) are utilised in our machine learning approach and their importance in the prediction is analysed. The transferability of the method to other specimen sizes is also demonstrated and the possible application in more generic settings is discussed.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2024

Avalanche Dynamics and the Effect of Straining in Dislocation Systems with Quenched Disorder

The plastic deformation of crystalline and other heterogeneous materials often manifests in stochastic intermittent events indicating the criticality of plastic behavior. Previous studies demonstrated that the presence of short-ranged quenched disorder modifies this behavior disrupting long-range static and dynamic correlations consequently localizing dislocation avalanches. However, these observations were mostly confined to relaxed materials devoid of deformation history. In this work our focus is on how straining affects static and dynamic correlations, avalanche dynamics and local yield stresses. We demonstrate that the interplay between severe straining and confining quenched disorder induces critical behavior characterized by dislocation avalanches distinct from those at lower stresses. Namely, near the flow stress many avalanches, even if triggered locally, evolve into events affecting a larger region by exciting small clusters of dislocations all around the sample. This type of avalanches differ from the ones at low strains where plastic events typically consist of one compact cluster of dislocations which is either local or it is already quite extended at the onset of the avalanche. Furthermore, we examine the impact of avalanches on local yield stresses. It is shown in detail in this work that while some statistical features of the local yield thresholds are robust to straining, others are significantly affected by the deformation history.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

On identifying dynamic length scales in crystal plasticity

Materials are often heterogeneous at various length scales, with variations in grain structure, defects, and composition which has a strong influence on the emergent macroscopic plastic behavior. In particular, heterogeneities lead to fluctuations in the plastic response in the form of jerky flow and ubiquitous strain bursts. One of the crucial aspects of plasticity modeling is scale bridging: In order to deliver physically correct crystal plasticity models, one needs to determine relevant microstructural length scales. In this paper we advance the idea that continuum descriptions of dislocation mediated plasticity cannot neglect dynamic correlations related to the avalanche behavior. We present an extensive weakest link analysis of crystal plasticity by means of three-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics simulations with and without spherical precipitates. We investigate strain bursts and related length scales and conclude that while sufficiently strong obstacles to dislocation motion tend to confine the dislocation avalanches within well-defined sub-volumes, in pure dislocation systems the avalanches may span the system, implying that the dynamic length scale is, in fact, the size of the entire sample. Consequences of this finding on continuum modeling are thoroughly discussed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Dynamic Length Scale and Weakest Link Behavior in Crystal Plasticity

Plastic deformation of heterogeneous solid structures is often characterized by random intermittent local plastic events. On the mesoscale this feature can be represented by a spatially fluctuating local yield threshold. Here we study the validity of such an approach and the ideal choice for the size of the representative volume element for crystal plasticity in terms of a discrete dislocation model. We find that the number of links representing possible sources of plastic activity exhibits anomalous (super-extensive) scaling which tends to extensive scaling (often assumed in weakest-link models) if quenched short-range interactions are introduced. The reason is that the interplay between long-range dislocation interactions and short-range quenched disorder destroys scale-free dynamical correlations leading to event localization with a characteristic length-scale. Several methods are presented to determine the dynamic length-scale that can be generalized to other types of heterogeneous materials.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗