A molecular dynamics study of nanocontact plasticity and dislocation avalanches in FCC and BCC crystals
This study aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms which govern the development of dense defect networks in nanoscale crystal plasticity, either under contact and uniaxial loading conditions, with emphasis on the onset of intermittent avalanche phenomena. The investigation is based on a compre...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | CBUC, CESCA |
| Repositorio: | TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/667172 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10803/667172 https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/dissertation-2117-166161 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria mecànica 621 |
| Sumario: | This study aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms which govern the development of dense defect networks in nanoscale crystal plasticity, either under contact and uniaxial loading conditions, with emphasis on the onset of intermittent avalanche phenomena. The investigation is based on a comprehensive set of massive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations performed with embedded-atom method potentials in face-centered cubic (FCC) and body-centered cubic (BCC) crystals. The first part of the thesis concerns the combined role of elasticity and plasticity in nanocontact loadings, where attention is given to the mechanisms leading to the formation of a permanent nanoimprint as well as to the onset of material pile-up at the contact vicinity. It is found that the topographical arrangement of the slip traces emitted at the surface into specific deformation patterns is a distinctive feature of the underlying dislocation glide and twinning processes occurring in FCC and BCC crystals as a function of temperature and surface orientation. A mechanistic analysis is made on the influence of the defect nucleation events in conjunction with the development of entangled defect networks upon the material hardness and its evolution towards a plateau level with increasing indenter-tip penetration. Complementary MD simulations of the uniaxial stress-strain curve of the plastically deformed region are carried out with the purpose of establishing a direct correlation between nanoscale material responses attaining under uniaxial and contact loading conditions. The results of this comparison illustrate on the key role played by defect nucleation processes on the formation of permanent nanoimprints, which differs from the conventional view in that in micro and macroscopic scales imprint formation is essentially governed by the evolutionary character of a preexisting (entangled) defect network: the greater the dislocation density, the larger the measured hardness. In overall, this work provides a fundamental insight into the understanding of why BCC surfaces are harder than FCC surfaces at the nanoscale. A statistical physics background is devised to investigate the influence of the dislocation mechanisms on the onset of avalanche events that are inherent to crystal plasticity. The analysis is predicated upon the notion in that the size distribution of such avalanches follows power-law scaling. To investigate the avalanche size distributions in cubic crystals, a group of novel MD simulations are performed where the computational cells containing a periodic arrangement of a preexisting dislocation network are subjected to uniaxial straining under displacement control at different strain rates and temperatures. Under sufficiently slow driving, the dislocation networks evolve through the emission of dislocation avalanches which do not overlap in time. This illustrates that the mobilized entangled dislocation arrangements exhibit quiescent periods during each plastic (dissipative) event, enabling comparison with experimental results which are also performed under strict displacement controlled conditions. The results illustrate on the attainment of a transitional slip size separating two power-law avalanche regimes as a function of the fundamental dislocation glide processes at the crossroads of self-organized and tuned criticality models. Detailed analyses of the MD simulations furnish specific mechanisms characterizing dislocation avalanche emission and propagation in FCC and BCC metals throughout a wide temperature range, which is central in supporting the onset of the aforementioned two power-law regimes. |
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