Upscaling of the dynamics of dislocation walls

We perform the discrete-to-continuum limit passage for a microscopic model describing the time evolution of dislocations in a one dimensional setting. This answers the related open question raised by Geers et al. in [GPPS13]. The proof of the upscaling procedure (i.e. the discrete-to-continuum passage) relies on the gradient flow structure of both the discrete and continuous energies of dislocations set in a suitable evolutionary variational inequality framework. Moreover, the convexity and $\Gamma$-convergence of the respective energies are properties of paramount importance for our arguments

The continuum limit of interacting dislocations on multiple slip systems

In this paper we derive the continuum limit of a multiple-species, interacting particle system by proving a $\Gamma$-convergence result on the interaction energy as the number of particles tends to infinity. As the leading application, we consider $n$ edge dislocations in multiple slip systems. Since the interaction potential of dislocations has a logarithmic singularity at zero with a sign that depends on the orientation of the slip systems, the interaction energy is unbounded from below. To make the minimization problem of this energy meaningful, we follow the common approach to regularise the interaction potential over a length-scale $\delta > 0$. The novelty of our result is that we leave the \emph{type} of regularisation general, and that we consider the joint limit $n \to \infty$ and $\delta \to 0$. Our result shows that the limit behaviour of the interaction energy is not affected by the type of the regularisation used, but that it may depend on how fast the \emph{size} (i.e., $\delta$) decays as $n \to \infty$.Comment: 34 page

Dynamics of screw dislocations: a generalised minimising-movements scheme approach

The gradient flow structure of the model introduced in [CG99] for the dynamics of screw dislocations is investigated by means of a generalised minimising-movements scheme approach. The assumption of a finite number of available glide directions, together with the "maximal dissipation criterion" that governs the equations of motion, results into solving a differential inclusion rather than an ODE. This paper addresses how the model in [CG99] is connected to a time-discrete evolution scheme which explicitly confines dislocations to move each time step along a single glide direction. It is proved that the time-continuous model in [CG99] is the limit of these time-discrete minimising-movement schemes when the time step converges to 0. The study presented here is a first step towards a generalisation of the setting in [AGS08, Chap. 2 and 3] that allows for dissipations which cannot be described by a metric.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures http://cvgmt.sns.it/paper/2781

Boundary-layer analysis of a pile-up of walls of edge dislocations at a lock

In this paper we analyse the behaviour of a pile-up of vertically periodic walls of edge dislocations at an obstacle, represented by a locked dislocation wall. Starting from a continuum non-local energy $E_\gamma$ modelling the interactions$-$at a typical length-scale of $1/\gamma$$-$of the walls subjected to a constant shear stress, we derive a first-order approximation of the energy $E_\gamma$ in powers of $1/\gamma$ by $\Gamma$-convergence, in the limit $\gamma\to\infty$. While the zero-order term in the expansion, the $\Gamma$-limit of $E_\gamma$, captures the `bulk' profile of the density of dislocation walls in the pile-up domain, the first-order term in the expansion is a `boundary-layer' energy that captures the profile of the density in the proximity of the lock. This study is a first step towards a rigorous understanding of the behaviour of dislocations at obstacles, defects, and grain boundaries.Comment: 25 page

Is adding charcoal to soil a good method for CO2 sequestration? - Modeling a spatially homogeneous soil

Carbon sequestration is the process of capture and long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) with the aim to avoid dangerous climate change. In this paper, we propose a simple mathematical model (a coupled system of nonlinear ODEs) to capture some of the dynamical effects produced by adding charcoal to fertile soils. The main goal is to understand to which extent charcoal is able to lock up carbon in soils. Our results are preliminary in the sense that we do not solve the CO2 sequestration problem. Instead, we do set up a flexible modeling framework in which the interaction between charcoal and soil can be tackled by means of mathematical tools. We show that our model is well-posed and has interesting large-time behaviour. Depending on the reference parameter range (e.g. type of soil) and chosen time scale, numerical simulations suggest that adding charcoal typically postpones the release of CO2

Discrete-to-continuum limits of planar disclinations

In materials science, wedge disclinations are defects caused by angular mismatches in the crystallographic lattice. To describe such disclinations, we introduce an atomistic model in planar domains. This model is given by a nearest-neighbor-type energy for the atomic bonds with an additional term to penalize change in volume. We enforce the appearance of disclinations by means of a special boundary condition. Our main result is the discrete-to-continuum limit of this energy as the lattice size tends to zero. Our proof method is relaxation of the energy. The main mathematical novelty of our proof is a density theorem for the special boundary condition. In addition to our limit theorem, we construct examples of planar disclinations as solutions to numerical minimization of the model and show that classical results for wedge disclinations are recovered by our analysis

Convergence rates for energies of interacting particles whose distribution spreads out as their number increases

We consider a class of particle systems which appear in various applications such as approximation theory, plasticity, potential theory and space-filling designs. The positions of the particles on the real line are described as a global minimum of an interaction energy, which consists of a nonlocal, repulsive interaction part and a confining part. Motivated by the applications, we cover non-standard scenarios in which the confining potential weakens as the number of particles increases. This results in a large area over which the particles spread out. Our aim is to approximate the particle interaction energy by a corresponding continuum interacting energy. Our main results are bounds on the corresponding energy difference and on the difference between the related potential values. We demonstrate that these bounds are useful to problems in approximation theory and plasticity. The proof of these bounds relies on convexity assumptions on the interaction and confining potentials. It combines recent advances in the literature with a new upper bound on the minimizer of the continuum interaction energy.Comment: 28 page

Discrete-to-continuum convergence of charged particles in 1D with annihilation

We consider a system of charged particles moving on the real line driven by electrostatic interactions. Since we consider charges of both signs, collisions might occur in finite time. Upon collision, some of the colliding particles are effectively removed from the system (annihilation). The two applications we have in mind are vortices and dislocations in metals. In this paper we reach two goals. First, we develop a rigorous solution concept for the interacting particle system with annihilation. The main innovation here is to provide a careful management of the annihilation of groups of more than two particles, and we show that the definition is consistent by proving existence, uniqueness, and continuous dependence on initial data. The proof relies on a detailed analysis of ODE trajectories close to collision, and a reparametrization of vectors in terms of the moments of their elements. Secondly, we pass to the many-particle limit (discrete-to-continuum), and recover the expected limiting equation for the particle density. Due to the singular interactions and the annihilation rule, standard proof techniques of discrete-to-continuum limits do not apply. In particular, the framework of measures seems unfit. Instead, we use the one-dimensional feature that both the particle system and the limiting PDE can be characterized in terms of Hamilton--Jacobi equations. While our proof follows a standard limit procedure for such equations, the novelty with respect to existing results lies in allowing for stronger singularities in the particle system by exploiting the freedom of choice in the definition of viscosity solutions.Comment: 51 page