Bridging Atomistic and Continuum Descriptions of Nanoscale Dislocation Loops in Tungsten

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lopez, Joseph Duque, Dudarev, Sergei, Kermode, James, Hudson, Thomas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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_version_ 1866917416328495104
author Lopez, Joseph Duque
Dudarev, Sergei
Kermode, James
Hudson, Thomas
author_facet Lopez, Joseph Duque
Dudarev, Sergei
Kermode, James
Hudson, Thomas
contents In order to predict the long-term effects of irradiation on the material properties of tungsten, a continuum approach to simulating the interactions of dislocation loops, which arise from radiation damage, is proposed. Continuum models of the displacement, strain and stress fields produced by dislocation loops exhibit unphysical singularities near the defect core, but are thought to accurately capture atomistic displacements in the far-field. A linear elastic model of nanoscale dislocation loops in tungsten is developed, and the model is verified using atomistic simulations to ensure that the model is informed by lower-length scale phenomena such that the physics of the problem is correctly captured. We discuss the model and its advantages, and show that predictions produced by atomistic simulations do indeed agree well with the far-field behaviour of the continuum model when dislocation loops are far from material boundaries. In particular, we robustly demonstrate that the decay rate of atomistic results and continuum results coincide with one another, and show that the results converge as the size of the atomistic simulations approach the far-field limit.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_16246
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bridging Atomistic and Continuum Descriptions of Nanoscale Dislocation Loops in Tungsten
Lopez, Joseph Duque
Dudarev, Sergei
Kermode, James
Hudson, Thomas
Materials Science
In order to predict the long-term effects of irradiation on the material properties of tungsten, a continuum approach to simulating the interactions of dislocation loops, which arise from radiation damage, is proposed. Continuum models of the displacement, strain and stress fields produced by dislocation loops exhibit unphysical singularities near the defect core, but are thought to accurately capture atomistic displacements in the far-field. A linear elastic model of nanoscale dislocation loops in tungsten is developed, and the model is verified using atomistic simulations to ensure that the model is informed by lower-length scale phenomena such that the physics of the problem is correctly captured. We discuss the model and its advantages, and show that predictions produced by atomistic simulations do indeed agree well with the far-field behaviour of the continuum model when dislocation loops are far from material boundaries. In particular, we robustly demonstrate that the decay rate of atomistic results and continuum results coincide with one another, and show that the results converge as the size of the atomistic simulations approach the far-field limit.
title Bridging Atomistic and Continuum Descriptions of Nanoscale Dislocation Loops in Tungsten
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.16246