Coupled thermoelastic simulation of nanovoid cavitation by dislocation emission at finite temperature

Abstract

In this work we study the early onset of void growth by dislocation emission at finite temperature in single crystal of copper under uniaxial loading conditions using the HotQC method. The results provide a detailed characterization of the cavitation mechanism, including the geometry of the emitted dislocations, the dislocation reaction paths and attendant macroscopic quantities of interest such as the cavitation pressure. In addition, this work shows that as prismatic dislocation loops grow and move away from the void, the material surrounded by these loops is pushed away from the void surface, giving rise to a flux of material together with a heat flux through the crystal.