An approach to the dynamics was proposed which was based upon the geometrically necessary fluctuations of local stress and strain rate that were caused by long-range dislocation interactions during plastic flow. At the mesoscopic scale, a crystal undergoing plastic deformation was considered to be a fluctuating medium. Application of the theory of noise-induced transitions, to dislocation dynamics, furnished new insights into the physical cause of the spontaneous formation of dislocation structures during plastic deformation. The results demonstrated the importance of strain-rate sensitivity with regard to dislocation patterning.

On the Foundations of Stochastic Dislocation Dynamics. P.Hähner: Applied Physics A, 1996, 62[5], 473-81