It was recalled that many problems in the modelling of materials required a combination of approaches in order to treat both the atomistic and continuum levels. This strategy was demonstrated here by citing examples of continuum models. One of these was the Peierls framework, as used in the analysis of dislocation nucleation in solids. By using atomistics within the framework of the embedded-atom method, each of the central assumptions made in the Peierls-type analysis were tested separately. The insights offered by this analysis were then combined so as to test the energetics which were predicted by the Peierls dislocation model as a whole. This was done by considering the Lomer dislocation in Al. The calculations demonstrated that the local constitutive framework led to significant errors in the case of rapidly varying slip.

Critical Analysis of Local Constitutive Models for Slip. R.Miller, R.Phillips: Philosophical Magazine A, 1996, 73[4], 803-27