scholarly journals Size-Dependent Mechanical Properties of Amorphous SiO2 Nanowires: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5110
Author(s):  
Kun Sun ◽  
Juan Chen ◽  
Bingjie Wu ◽  
Liubing Wang ◽  
Liang Fang

Uniaxial tension tests were performed for amorphous SiO2 nanowires using molecular dynamics simulation to probe the size effect on the mechanical properties and plastic deformation by varying the length of nanowires. The simulation results showed that the Young’s modulus of SiO2 nanowires increased with the decrease of nanowires length due to its higher surface stress. The corresponding deformation of SiO2 nanowires during tension exhibited two periods: atomic arrangement at small strain and plastic deformation at large strain. During the atomic arrangement period, the percentage variations of atom number of 2-coordinated silicon and 3-coordinated silicon (PCN2 and PCN3) decreased, while the percentage variations of atom number of 4-coordinated silicon, 5-coordinated silicon (PCN4 and PCN5) and the Si–O bond number (PCB) rose slightly with increasing strain, as the strain was less than 22%. The situation reversed at the plastic deformation period, owing to the numerous breakage of Si–O bonds as the strain grew beyond 22%. The size effect of nanowires radius was considered, finding that the Young’s modulus and fracture stress were higher for the larger nanowire because of fewer dangling bonds and coordinate defeats in the surface area. The elastic deformation occurred at a small strain for the larger nanowire, followed by the massive plastic deformation during tension. A brittle mechanism covers the fracture characteristics, irrespective of the nanowire size.

Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Truong Vo ◽  
Brett Reeder ◽  
Angelo Damone ◽  
Pania Newell

Mechanical properties are very important when choosing a material for a specific application. They help to determine the range of usefulness of a material, establish the service life, and classify and identify materials. The size effect on mechanical properties has been well established numerically and experimentally. However, the role of the size effect combined with boundary and loading conditions on mechanical properties remains unknown. In this paper, by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with the state-of-the-art ReaxFF force field, we study mechanical properties of amorphous silica (e.g., Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio) as a function of domain size, full-/semi-periodic boundary condition, and tensile/compressive loading. We found that the domain-size effect on Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio is much more significant in semi-periodic domains compared to full-periodic domains. The results, for the first time, revealed the bimodular and anisotropic nature of amorphous silica at the atomic level. We also defined a “safe zone” regarding the domain size, where the bulk properties of amorphous silica can be reproducible, while the computational cost and accuracy are in balance.


Author(s):  
D Huo ◽  
Y Liang ◽  
K Cheng

Nanoindentation tests performed in an atomic force microscope have been utilized to directly measure the mechanical properties of single crystal metal thin films fabricated by the vacuum vapour deposition technique. Nanoindentation tests were conducted at various indentation depths to study the effect of indentation depths on the mechanical properties of thin films. The results were interpreted by using the Oliver-Pharr method with which direct observation and measurement of the contact area are not required. The elastic modulus of the single crystal copper film at various indentation depths was determined as 67.0 > 6.9 GPa on average, which is in reasonable agreement with the results reported by others. The indentation hardness constantly increases with decreasing indentation depth, indicating a strong size effect. In addition to the experimental work, a three-dimensional nanoindentation model of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with embedded atom method (EAM) potential is proposed to elucidate the mechanics and mechanisms of nanoindentation of thin films from the atomistic point of view. MD simulations results show that due to the size effect no distinct dislocations were observed in the plastic deformation processes of the single crystal copper thin films, which is significantly different from the plastic deformation mechanism in bulk materials.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3467
Author(s):  
Anna Nocivin ◽  
Doina Raducanu ◽  
Bogdan Vasile ◽  
Corneliu Trisca-Rusu ◽  
Elisabeta Mirela Cojocaru ◽  
...  

The present paper analyzed the microstructural characteristics and the mechanical properties of a Ti–Nb–Zr–Fe–O alloy of β-Ti type obtained by combining severe plastic deformation (SPD), for which the total reduction was of etot = 90%, with two variants of super-transus solution treatment (ST). The objective was to obtain a low Young’s modulus with sufficient high strength in purpose to use the alloy as a biomaterial for orthopedic implants. The microstructure analysis was conducted through X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) investigations. The analyzed mechanical properties reveal promising values for yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of about 770 and 1100 MPa, respectively, with a low value of Young’s modulus of about 48–49 GPa. The conclusion is that satisfactory mechanical properties for this type of alloy can be obtained if considering a proper combination of SPD + ST parameters and a suitable content of β-stabilizing alloying elements, especially the Zr/Nb ratio.


Author(s):  
Mohsen Motamedi ◽  
AH Naghdi ◽  
SK Jalali

Composite materials have become popular because of high mechanical properties and lightweight. Aluminum/carbon nanotube is one of the most important metal composite. In this research, mechanical properties of aluminum/carbon nanotube composite were obtained using molecular dynamics simulation. Then, effect of temperature on stress–strain curve of composite was studied. The results showed by increasing temperature, the Young’s modulus of composite was decreased. More specifically increasing the temperature from 150 K to 620 K, decrease the Young’s modulus to 11.7%. The ultimate stress of composite also decreased by increasing the temperature. A continuum model of composite was presented using finite element method. The results showed the role of carbon nanotube on strengthening of composite.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 5715
Author(s):  
Jun Ding ◽  
Sheng-Lai Zhang ◽  
Quan Tong ◽  
Lu-Sheng Wang ◽  
Xia Huang ◽  
...  

The effects of grain boundary misorientation angle (θ) on mechanical properties and the mechanism of plastic deformation of the Ni/Ni3Al interface under tensile loading were investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that the space lattice arrangement at the interface is dependent on grain boundary misorientations, while the interfacial energy is dependent on the arrangement. The interfacial energy varies in a W pattern as the grain boundary misorientation increases from 0° to 90°. Specifically, the interfacial energy first decreases and then increases in both segments of 0–60° and 60–90°. The yield strength, elastic modulus, and mean flow stress decrease as the interfacial energy increases. The mechanism of plastic deformation varies as the grain boundary misorientation angle (θ) increases from 0° to 90°. When θ = 0°, the microscopic plastic deformation mechanisms of the Ni and Ni3Al layers are both dominated by stacking faults induced by Shockley dislocations. When θ = 30°, 60°, and 80°, the mechanisms of plastic deformation of the Ni and Ni3Al layers are the decomposition of stacking faults into twin grain boundaries caused by extended dislocations and the proliferation of stacking faults, respectively. When θ = 90°, the mechanisms of plastic deformation of both the Ni and Ni3Al layers are dominated by twinning area growth resulting from extended dislocations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing-Sheng Yang ◽  
Bing-Qi Li ◽  
Xiao-Qiao He ◽  
Yiu-Wing Mai

This investigation focuses on the design of functionalization configuration at the atomic level to determine the influence of atomic structure on the mechanical properties of functionalized carbon nanotubes (F-CNTs) and their composites. Tension and compressive buckling behaviors of different configurations of CNTs functionalized by H atoms are studied by a molecular dynamics (MD) method. It is shown that H-atom functionalization reduces Young’s modulus of CNTs, but Young’s modulus is not sensitive to the functionalization configuration. The configuration does, however, affect the tensile strength and critical buckling stress of CNTs. Further, the stress-strain relations of composites reinforced by nonfunctionalized and various functionalized CNTs are analyzed.


2005 ◽  
Vol 475-479 ◽  
pp. 3291-3294
Author(s):  
Shi Fang Xiao ◽  
Yu Hu Wang

The uniaxial compressive mechanical properties of nanocrystalline Fe are simulated with a molecular dynamics technique and the analytical embedded-atom method. An asymmetrical mechanical phenomenon between tensile and compressive process is found, and the yield stress and flow stress in compression are higher than those in tension simulations. The compressive deformation process can be described as three characteristic regions: quasi-elastic deformation, plastic flowing deformation, and strain strengthening. During the plastic flowing deformation region, the material shows very good compressive ductibility. The plastic deformation is mainly dominated by the grain boundary atom slide.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 59-67
Author(s):  
Fang Li Duan ◽  
Cheng Zhang ◽  
Qing Song Liu

The frustules of diatoms have excellent elasticity and high strength, but their main composition, amorphous silica, is a kind of typical brittle material. Molecular dynamics simulations of the uniaxial tension were carried out to study the size effect on the mechanical properties of amorphous silica. Stress-strain behavior, the radius of biggest void, radial distribution functions and bond angle distribution were analyzed. Our results show the small model exhibits a better ultimate strength, ductility and toughness than the large model, and the generation and expansion of voids plays an important role in the fracture behavior of the model. For the small model, some of Si-O bonds are stretched, and the average of O-Si-O bond angle decreases from 108o to 95o, which makes the model have a capability to perform larger plastic deformation and lead to a better ductility. However, for the large model, except the change of Si-O-Si bond angle, its structure has no other significant changes. Our results demonstrate that changes of size have significant impact on the mechanical properties and deformation mechanism of intrinsically brittle materials at the nanoscale.


2012 ◽  
Vol 472-475 ◽  
pp. 1813-1817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Lin Yang ◽  
Zhe Yong Fan ◽  
Ning Wei ◽  
Yong Ping Zheng

In this paper the mechanical properties of a series of hydrogen functionalized graphyne are investigated through acting tensile loads on the monolayer networks. Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to calculate the fracture strains and corresponding maximum forces for pristine graphyne along both armchair and zigzag directions. Furthermore, hydrogen functionalized graphynes with different functionalization sites are analyzed to investigate the effect of functionlization on the mechanical performance. Finally, Young's modulus of all the investigated architectures are computed. The obtained results show that monolayer graphyne is mechanically stable with high strength and stiffness, and the mechanical performance can be tuned through structure engineering and functionalization.


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