Dislocation Glides in Granular Media

Atomic crystals with dislocations deform plastically at low stresses via dislocation glide. Whether dislocation glide occurs in macroscopic frictional granular media has remained unknown. The discrete element method is employed to simulate the structural and mechanical responses of a granular crystal with an edge dislocation. We find that dislocation glide occurs at low interparticle friction, resulting in significantly lower yield stresses than in dislocation-free crystals. Yield stress varies linearly with interparticle friction, attributed to both Peierls stress and frictional effect.