Dislocations and inclusions in prestressed metals

The effect of prestress on dislocation (and inclusion) fields in nonlinear elastic solids is analysed by extending previous solutions by Eshelby and Willis. Using a plane-strain constitutive model (for incompressible incremental nonlinear elasticity) to describe the behaviour of ductile metals (J(2)-deformation theory of plasticity), we show that when the level of prestress is high enough that shear band formation is approached, strongly localized strain patterns emerge, when a dislocation dipole is emitted by a source. These may explain cascade activation of dislocation clustering along slip band directions.