Atomistic study of edge dislocations in FCC metals: Drag and inertial effects

Atomistic simulations of an accelerating edge dislocation were carried out to study drag and inertial effects. Using an embedded atom potenial for nickel the Peierls stress, the effectice mass and the drag coefficient of an edge dislocations was determined for different temperatures and stresses in a simple slab geometry. A dislocation intersecting a void is used as a model to demonstrate the importance of inertial effects for dynamically overcoming short range obstacles. Significant effcts are found even at room temperature. Including intertial effects in discrete dislocation dynamics simulations allows to reproduce the atomistic results.