Yang Xiang

Dislocations are the line defects in crystals that carry plastic deformation. We propose a three-dimensional level set method for dislocation dynamics, where the dislocation lines are represented in three dimensions by the intersection of the zero levels of two level functions. Since the level set method does not directly track the individual dislocation line segments, it easily handles topological changes of dislocations in the microstructure. Further, this level set method for dislocation dynamics is capable of simulating the three-dimensional motion of dislocations, naturally accounting for dislocation glide, cross-slip and climb. We demonstrate the generality and power of the new method through a series of test applications.