Avalanches, precursors, and finite-size fluctuations in a mesoscopic model of amorphous plasticity.

We discuss avalanche and finite-size fluctuations in a mesoscopic model to describe the shear plasticity of amorphous materials. Plastic deformation is assumed to occur through series of local reorganizations. Yield stress criteria are random while each plastic slip event induces a quadrupolar long-range elastic stress redistribution.

Path-independent integrals to identify localized plastic events in two dimensions.

We use a power expansion representation of plane-elasticity complex potentials due to Kolossov and Muskhelishvili to compute the elastic fields induced by a localized plastic deformation event. Far from its center, the dominant contributions correspond to first-order singularities of quadrupolar and dipolar symmetry which can be associated, respectively, with pure deviatoric and pure volumetric plastic strain of an equivalent circular inclusion. By construction of holomorphic functions from the displacement field and its derivatives, it is possible to define path-independent Cauchy integrals which capture the amplitudes of these singularities.