The conditions required for dislocation nucleation beneath a plane-strain rectangular indenter were considered using an analytical model. Firstly, the equivalent driving force on a singularity was derived in a compact form. Using this general result, the driving force was expressed in the form of complex integral formulae in terms of Muskhelishvili’s complex potentials for rectangular-edged contacts. Then, using the Rice-Thomson model, a dislocation nucleation criterion was proposed for a stress-contacted surface. The validity of the criterion was checked against experimental results and good agreement was found.

Surface Dislocation Nucleation from Frictional Sliding Contacts. L.Ma, A.M.Korsunsky: International Journal of Solids and Structures, 2008, 45[22-23], 5936-45