A new fast finite element method for dislocations based on interior discontinuities

A new technique for the modelling of multiple dislocations based on introducing interior discontinuities is presented. In contrast to existing methods, the superposition of infinite domain solutions is avoided; interior discontinuities are specified on the dislocation slip surfaces and the resulting boundary value problem is solved by a finite element method. The accuracy of the proposed method is verified and its efficiency for multi-dislocation problems is illustrated. Bounded core energies are incorporated into the method through regularization of the discontinuities at their edges. Though the method is applied to edge dislocations here, its extension to other types of dislocations is straightforward. Copyright q 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.