This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Elias Aifantis, Michigan Technological University and Dr. Joel Lepinoux, Laboratory for Physical Metallurgy, Poitiers, France. The objective of the project is the study of dislocation-crack interactions under dynamical situations. Various conditions including mixed loading modes, as well as the influence of environment and microstructure will be considered. Two general approaches will be used: 1) classical dislocation simulations in two dimensions and 2) nonlinear dislocation dynamics. The possibility of using the cellular automata method will also be explored. The results of this research may lead to a framework for considering crack stability and growth, as well as a new fundamental understanding of fracture toughness related phenomena. This project will benefit from the complementary expertise of the two investigators. Both groups have been working for several years on the problem of self organization of disloca- tions by using two different methods: nonlinear dynamics (US) and simulation with cellular automata (France).
