The close-range interaction of dislocations and solute clusters in the Al–Mg binary system was studied by means of atomistic simulations. An evaluation was made of the binding energy per unit length of dislocations to the thermodynamically stable solute atmospheres that formed around their cores at various temperatures and average solid-solution concentrations. A measure of the cluster size was identified that produced a linear relationship between the binding energy per unit length and the cluster size. The variation of the interaction energy between a dislocation, and a cluster located at a finite distance from its core, was evaluated. It was shown that the interaction was negligible when the separation was greater than some 15 Burgers vectors. The data were concluded to be relevant to the dynamics of dislocation-pinning during dynamic strain-aging in solid-solution alloys, and to static aging.

Dislocation–Solute Cluster Interaction in Al–Mg Binary Alloys. Z.Xu, R.C.Picu: Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 2006, 14[2], 195-206