Stress field

A stress field is a region in a body for which the stress is defined at every point. Stress fields are widely used in fluid dynamics and materials science.

Intuitively, one can picture the stress fields as the stress created by adding an extra half plane of atoms to a crystal. The bonds are clearly stretched around the location of the dislocation and this stretching causes the stress field to form. Atomistic bonds farther and farther away from the dislocation center are less and less stretched which is why the stress field dissipates as the distance from the dislocation center increases. Each dislocation within the material has a stress field associated with it. The creation of these stress fields are a result of the material trying to dissipate mechanical energy that is being exerted on the material. By convention these dislocations are labeled as either positive or negative depending on whether the stress field of the dislocation is mostly compressive or tensile.