Understanding acoustoplasticity through dislocation dynamics simulations

The acoustoplastic effect in metals is routinely utilised in industrial processes involving forming, machining and joining, but the underlying mechanism is still not well understood. There have been earlier suggestions that dislocation mobility is enhanced intrinsically by the applied ultrasound excitation, but in subsequent deliberations it is routinely assumed that the ultrasound merely adds extra stresses to the material without altering its dislocation density or intrinsic resistance to deformation. In this study, a dislocation dynamics simulation was carried out to investigate the interactions of dislocations under the combined influence of quasi-static and oscillatory stresses. Under such combined stress states, dislocation annihilation is found to be enhanced leading to larger strains at the same load history. The simulated strain evolution under different stress schemes also closely resembles certain previously obtained experimental observations. The discovery here goes far beyond the simple picture that the ultrasound effect is merely an added-stress one, since here, the intrinsic strain-hardening potency of the material is found to be reduced by the ultrasound, through its effect on enhancing dislocation annihilation.