SlipVektoren

SlipVektoren are vector quantities used to describe the relative displacement between two parts of a material separated by a slip surface, such as the glide of a dislocation in a crystal or motion along a fault in rocks. They capture both the amount and the direction of slip that occurs when the material yields or ruptures along a plane.

Mathematically, a slip vector s lies in the slip plane, so s · n = 0 where n is the plane’s unit normal. The magnitude |s| represents the slip amount, while the direction within the plane indicates the motion path. In crystallography, slip vectors typically align with the slip direction of a defined slip system on a given plane (for example, a specific plane and direction combination).

In materials science, SlipVektoren are used in models of plastic deformation and dislocation glide to predict local strains and the evolution of microstructure. In geophysics, they describe fault slip during earthquakes and are used to analyze seismic data and fracture mechanics. The concept provides a concise way to represent interfacial displacement across discontinuities.

Relation to other concepts: the slip vector is related to, but distinct from, the Burgers vector, which characterizes lattice distortion around a dislocation; the slip vector describes macroscopic relative displacement across a plane. The term appears in continuum mechanics and numerical models of discontinuities.

Measurement and calculation: slip vectors can be inferred from displacement fields obtained via experiments, digital image correlation, diffraction methods, or InSAR for faults, and from crystallographic data such as electron backscatter diffraction. In simulations, they are imposed as boundary conditions or computed from constitutive slip models.