Fast Fourier transform discrete dislocation dynamics

Discrete dislocation dynamics simulations have been generally limited to modeling systems described by isotropic elasticity. Effects of anisotropy on dislocation interactions, which can be quite large, have generally been ignored because of the computational expense involved when including anisotropic elasticity. We present a different formalism of dislocation dynamics in which the dislocations are represented by the deformation tensor, which is a direct measure of the slip in the lattice caused by the dislocations and can be considered as an eigenstrain. The stresses arising from the dislocations are calculated with a fast Fourier transform (FFT) method, from which the forces are determined and the equations of motion are solved. Use of the FFTs means that the stress field is only available at the grid points, which requires some adjustments/regularizations to be made to the representation of the dislocations and the calculation of the force on individual segments, as is discussed hereinafter. A notable advantage of this approach is that there is no computational penalty for including anisotropic elasticity. We review the method and apply it in a simple dislocation dynamics calculation.