dislocatiedrift

Dislocatiedrift is a term used in materials science to describe the directional movement of dislocations—line defects in a crystal lattice—under external stress or temperature gradients, and the resulting net drift contributes to plastic deformation and creep.

The mechanism combines dislocation glide, where dislocations move along slip planes in response to shear, and dislocation climb, where atoms diffuse to allow dislocations to move out of their glide planes. When gradients or fields favor a particular direction, the ensemble of dislocations exhibits a net drift, enhancing or modulating deformation rates.

In practice, dislocatiedrift is relevant at high temperatures or under strong gradients, such as in turbine alloys and ceramics. It helps explain anisotropic creep behavior and the degradation of mechanical properties over time.

Etymology: the term is a Norwegian coinage from dislokasjon (dislocation) and drift (drift or operation), used occasionally in scholarly texts and not a widely standardized term. Related concepts include dislocation, creep, glide, and climb.