It was noted that the understanding of flow localization in materials which contained a high concentration of stacking-fault tetrahedra depended upon the mechanisms via which they were destroyed as effective dislocation obstacles. The elastic interaction between glissile dislocations and stacking-fault tetrahedra in face-centered cubic metals was examined analytically and numerically. Numerical calculations were performed for full and truncated tetrahedra which interacted with edge dislocations. A new analytical formula was derived for the elastic energy of a full tetrahedron-dislocation system. The calculations confirmed that the stress field of a glissile dislocation was insufficient to re-configure stacking-fault tetrahedra into faulted Frank loops via the reverse glide of stair-rod dislocations. This mechanism of stacking-fault tetrahedron destruction by the shear unfaulting of Frank loops seemed to be unlikely. It was proposed that the destruction of stacking-fault tetrahedra in irradiated materials was permitted by the dislocation drag of interstitial clusters; followed by subsequent recombination and melting of the stacking-fault tetrahedron core.

Analytical and Numerical Determination of the Elastic Interaction Energy between Glissile Dislocations and Stacking Fault Tetrahedra in FCC Metals. L.Z.Sun, N.M.Ghoniem, Z.Q.Wang: Materials Science and Engineering A, 2001, 309-310, 178-83