Coupled atomistic-mesoscopic model of polycrystalline plasticity

We discuss a microstructure evolution framework which couples atomic-level information about extended-defect interactions into a mesoscopic model; the latter, in turn, describes the dy-namic evolution of a statistical population of grain boundaries and dislocations. Atomistic simulations are carried out by means of molecular dynamics simulations on both isolated and interacting dislocations, grain boundaries, triple junctions, microcracks; the reference material for such studies is, at present, Silicon with the Stillinger-Weber potential. The mesoscale model describes the motion of discrete triple junctions (and, consequently, of the continuous network of adjoining grain boundaries) embedded in a continuous medium containing a homogeneous, evolving distribution of dislocations.