A recently developed microstructure evolution model, with stochastic dynamics, was used to study the evolution of ordered dislocation patterns. The dislocations were described as groups arranged into arrays, with an initially random distribution of orientations, moving in an isotropic viscous medium. Stochastic displacements of dislocation walls described the rearrangement of small groups of dislocations to form minimum-dissipation cell structures while lowering the overall misorientation. The result of large mechanical deformations was simulated by introducing a preferential direction along which misorientation gradients of various kinds were superposed. The simulations indicated the emergence of ordered microstructure patterns, with high-density dislocation boundaries running perpendicular to the initial gradient, and a low-density cellular band structure between.

Evolution of Dislocation Cell Structures in Plastically Deformed Metals. F.Cleri: Computer Physics Communications, 2005, 169[1-3], 44-9