The Peierls-Nabarro Stress

“What governs dislocation slip?”

Unslipped state

Slipped state
Energy change from
unslipped to slipped state
upon the slip of an edge
Energy

E Dislocation.
(After Orowan et al.)

Displacement

Peierls-Nabarro (PN)
Stages in growth
of the slipped region
upon edge dislocation
PN motion. (After Dieter)

Slipped region w Unslipped region

applied>Peierls-Nabarro (PN)

Chapter 7 -
Chapter 7 - 2
Chapter 7 - 3
 The Peierls-Nabarro Stress (Cont’d)
“What sets dislocations in motion?”
➢ If the resolved shear stress R > PN then dislocation slip can occur.
The critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) in Schmidt’s Law is
directly related to PN.

 2w   2d 
 2G     2G   
PN   exp  - 
   exp  - 
 1-   b   1-   (1 − ) b 

PN = Peierls − Nabarro shear stress

G = The shear modulus of the solid
 = The Poisson's ration of the solid
w = The dislocation width
b = The magnitude of the Burgers vector
d = The interplanar spacing between slip planes
Chapter 7 -
Chapter 7 - 5
Chapter 7 - 6
 The Peierls-Nabarro Stress (Cont’d)
“Why are metals ductile & ceramics brittle?”
➢ In metals wmetals~10a, whereas in ceramics wceramics~2-3a, where a
is the lattice parameter; i.e. wmetal~5 nm and wceramic ~1-1.5 nm.
Ceramics have localized dislocations, metals do not.

 2w   2d 
 2G     2G   
PN   exp  - 
   exp  - 
 1-   b   1-   (1 − ) b 

PN = Peierls − Nabarro shear stress

w Metals  w Non − metals

G = The shear modulus of the solid
 = The Poisson's ration of the solid
Non − metals
w = The dislocation width  PN  Metals
PN
b = The magnitude of the Burgers vector
d = The interplanar spacing between slip planes
Chapter 7 -
 The Peierls-Nabarro Stress (Cont’d)
“Importance of crystallography in dislocation slip?”
➢ Close packed planes have large d values whereas close packed
directions have small Burgers vectors. Hence, large d and small b
favor low PN.

 2w   2d 
 2G     2G   
PN   exp  - 
   exp  - 
 1-   b   1-   (1 − ) b 

PN = Peierls − Nabarro shear stress d 

 h1k1l1 
G = The shear modulus of the solid   → max in CP metals
 = The Poisson's ration of the solid  b h 2 k 2l2 
w = The dislocation width {h1k1l1}: Slip Planes
b = The magnitude of the Burgers vector  h 2 k 2 l2 : Slip Directions
d = The interplanar spacing between slip planes
Chapter 7 -
 The Peierls-Nabarro Stress (Cont’d)
“Importance of crystallography in dislocation slip?”
➢ When d<b then PN is very high as in the case of low symmetry
crystal structures typically observed in nonmetallic solids (ceramics
and/or intermetallics).

 2w   2d 
 2G     2G   
PN   exp  - 
   exp  - 
 1-   b   1-   (1 − ) b 

PN = Peierls − Nabarro shear stress d 

 h1k1l1 
G = The shear modulus of the solid   → min in non-metals
 = The Poisson's ration of the solid  b h 2 k 2l2 
w = The dislocation width {h1k1l1}: Slip Planes
b = The magnitude of the Burgers vector  h 2 k 2 l2 : Slip Directions
d = The interplanar spacing between slip planes
Chapter 7 -