Stress-free states of continuum dislocation fields: Rotations, grain boundaries, and the Nye dislocation density tensor

We derive general relations between grain boundaries, rotational deformations, and stress-free states for the mesoscale continuum Nye dislocation density tensor. Dislocations generally are associated with long-range stress fields. We provide the general form for dislocation density fields whose stress fields vanish. We explain that a grain boundary a dislocation wall satisfying Frank’s formula has vanishing stress in the continuum limit. We show that the general stress-free state can be written explicitly as a perhaps continuous superposition of flat Frank walls. We show that the stress-free states are also naturally interpreted as configurations generated by a general spatially dependent rotational deformation. Finally, we propose a least-squares definition for the spatially dependent rotation field of a general stressful dislocation density field.