A molecular dynamics study of the mechanical properties of h-BCN monolayer using a modified Tersoff interatomic potential

Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we investigate the mechanical properties of hexagonal BCN monolayer, a newly synthesized two-dimensional material with an atom ratio of B/C/N = 1:1:1. The Tersoff potential is modified to get good agreement between predicted and measured fracture strengths of graphene. With this modified Tersoff potential, we perform extensive MD simulations to study the effect of temperature, strain rate and vacancy defect on the mechanical properties of h-BCN. It is found that h-BCN is a strong material with fracture strength of 81.4–93.5 GPa, albeit ∼35% lower than that of graphene. Similar to graphene, temperature has strong effect on the mechanical properties of h-BCN. As the temperature increases from 10 K to 1300 K, the fracture strength and strain of h-BCN drops by 55% and 62%, respectively. The strain rate is found to have a moderate effect. When the strain rate increases from 0.00002 to 0.0125 ps⁻¹, the fracture strength and strain of h-BCN increases 6.1% and 12%, respectively. As for the atomic defect, a very small concentration (0.028%) of vacancy in h-BCN is able to cause a 28% reduction in fracture strength and a 35.5% reduction in fracture strain. These findings have significance for its future applications in nanodevices.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of mechanical properties of nanocrystalline platinum: Grain-size and temperature effects

A series of molecular dynamics simulations has been carried out to study the mechanical properties of nanocrystalline platinum. The effects of average grain size and temperature on mechanical behaviors are discussed. The simulated uniaxial tensile results indicate the presence of a critical average grain size about 14.1 nm, for which there is an inversion of the conventional Hall-Petch relation at temperature of 300 K. The transition can be explained by a change of dominant deformation mechanism from dislocation motion for average grain size above 14.1 nm to grain boundary sliding for smaller grain size. The Young's modulus shows a linear relationship with the reciprocal of grain size, and the modulus of the grain boundary is about 42% of that of the grain core at 300 K. The parameters of mechanical properties, including Young's modulus, ultimate strength, yield stress and flow stress, decrease with the increase of temperature. It is noteworthy that the critical average grain size for the inversion of the Hall-Petch relation is sensitive to temperature and the Young's modulus has an approximate linear relation with the temperature. The results will accelerate its functional applications of nanocrystalline materials.     

Study of mechanical properties of amorphous copper with molecular dynamics simulation

The formation and mechanical properties of amorphous copper are studied using molecular dynamics simulation. The simulations of tension and shearing show that more pronounced plasticity is found under shearing, compared to tension. Apparent strain hardening and strain rate effect are observed. Interestingly, the variations of number density of atoms during deformation indicate free volume creation, especially under higher strain rate. In particular, it is found that shear induced dilatation does appear in the amorphous metal.     

Study of mechanical properties of amorphous copper with molecular dynamics simulation

The formation and mechanical properties of amorphous copper are studied using molecular dynamics simulation. The simulations of tension and shearing show that more pronounced plasticity is found under shearing, compared to tension. Apparent strain hardening and strain rate effect are observed. Interestingly, the variations of number density of atoms during deformation indicate free volume creation, especially under higher strain rate. In particular, it is found that shear induced dilatation does appear in the amorphous metal.     

Study of the effects of grain size on the mechanical properties of nanocrystalline copper using molecular dynamics simulation with initial realistic samples

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to study the mechanical properties of a columnar nanocrystalline copper with a mean grain size between 9.0 and 24 nm. A melting–cooling method has been used to generate the initial samples: this method produces realistic samples that contain defects inside the grains such as dislocations and vacancies. The results of uniaxial tensile tests applied to these samples reveal the presence of a critical mean grain size between 16 and 20 nm, for which there is an inversion of the conventional Hall–Petch relation. The principal mechanisms of deformation present in the samples correspond to a combination of dislocations and grain boundary sliding. In addition, this analysis shows the presence of sliding planes generated by the motion of perfect edge dislocations that are absorbed by grain boundaries. It is the initial defects present inside the grains that lead to this mechanism of deformation. An analysis of the atomic configurations further shows that nucleation and propagation of cracks are localised on the grain boundaries especially on the triple grains junctions.     

Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline copper under thermal load

The material properties of nanocrystallines are known to generally have a strong dependence on their nanoscale morphology, such as the grain size. The Hall-Petch effect states that the mechanical strength of nanocrystalline materials can vary substantially for a wide range of grain sizes; this is attributed to the competition between intergranular and intragranular deformations. We employed classical molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the morphology-dependent mechanical properties of nanocrystalline copper. The degradation of material properties under thermal load was investigated during fast strain rate deformation, particularly for the grain size. Our simulation results showed that the thermal load on the nanocrystalline materials alters the grain-size behavior of the mechanical properties.     

Investigation of mechanical properties of twin gold crystal nanowires under uniaxial load by molecular dynamics method

Twin gold crystal nanowires, whose loading direction is parallel to the twin boundary orientation, are simulated.We calculate the nanowires under tensile or compressive loads, different length nanowires, and different twin boundary nanowires respectively. The Young modulus of nanowires under compressive load is about twice that under tensile load.The compressive properties of twin gold nanowires are superior to their tensile properties. For different length nanowires,there is a critical value of length with respect to the mechanical properties. When the length of nanowire is greater than the critical value, its mechanical properties are sensitive to length. The twin boundary spacing hardly affects the mechanical properties.     

Pressure effect of structural and vibrational properties of solid pentaerythritol by molecular dynamics simulations

The molecular dynamics simulations (MD) are used to calculate the structural, vibrational and thermodynamic properties of pentaerythritol (PE) crystal up to 4 GPa. The pressure effect for the cell volume, lattice constants, and molecular geometry of solid PE are presented and discussed. It is observed that the C–C bonds has maximum variation, followed by C–H and C–O bonds, which means decomposition of the initial explosion may begin with the C–C bonds. The vibrational frequencies at ambient conditions slightly more than experimental results, and the pressure-induced frequency shifts of these modes are discussed.     

Improved microstructure and mechanical properties in gas tungsten arc welded aluminum joints by using graphene nanosheets/aluminum composite filler wires

In the present study, different amounts of graphene nanosheets (GNSs) were added to the 4043 aluminum alloy powders by using the mechanical alloying method to produce the composite filler wires. With each of the produced composite filler wires, one all-weld metal coupon was welded using the gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding process. The microstructure, mechanical properties and fracture surface morphology of the weld metals have been evaluated and the results are compared. As the amount of GNSs in the composition of filler wire is increased, the microstructure of weld metal was changed from the dendritic structure to fine equiaxed grains. Furthermore, the tensile strength and microhardness of weld metal was improved, and is attributed to the augmented nucleation and retarded growth. From the results, it was seen that the GNSs/Al composite filler wire can be used to improve the microstructure and mechanical properties of GTA weld metals of aluminum and its alloys.     

Mechanical and tribological properties of Ni/Al multilayers—A molecular dynamics study

Mechanical and tribological properties of multilayers with nanometer thickness are strongly affected by interfaces formed due to mismatch of lattice parameters. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of nanoindentation and following nanoscratching processes are performed to investigate the mechanical and tribological properties of Ni/Al multilayers with semi-coherent interface. The results show that the indentation hardness of Ni/Al multilayers is larger than pure Ni thin film, and the significant strength of Ni/Al multilayers is caused by the semi-coherent interface which acts as a barrier to glide of dislocations during nanoindentation process. The confinement of plastic deformation by the interface during nanoscratching on Ni/Al multilayers leads to smaller friction coefficient than pure Ni thin film. Dislocation evolution, interaction between gliding dislocations and interface, variations of indentation hardness and friction coefficient are studied.     

纳米多孔银力学性能表征分子动力学模拟

纳米多孔金属拥有优异的物理、化学性能,在众多领域中极具应用前景.相关力学性能的认知是实现其功能化应用的重要基础之一.基于分子动力学模拟,以三种拓扑结构(立方体结构、金刚石结构、螺旋体结构)的纳米多孔银为对象,研究了单轴拉伸下的力学响应,探讨了拓扑结构和相对密度与其力学性能的内在联系.仿真结果表明,纳米多孔银的极限强度和杨氏模量随相对密度增大而增大的同时,还紧密地依赖于拓扑结构.其中,金刚石结构与螺旋体结构的模量随相对密度的变化趋势较为相近,而螺旋体结构中螺旋形式的孔棱在受力拉直的过程中抵抗变形,表现出相对较好的塑性.立方体结构中,孔棱分布形式单一,抵抗变形的能力较弱,模量值较低.同一相对密度下,金刚石结构的强度最大,立方体结构次之,螺旋体结构最小.金刚石结构中,交错的孔棱间形成三角骨架结构,具有一定的稳定性,表现出相对较高的强度.     

Molecular dynamics study on the evolution of interfacial dislocation network and mechanical properties of Ni-based single crystal superalloys

The evolution of misfit dislocation network at $\gamma /{\gamma }^{\prime }$ phase interface and tensile mechanical properties of Ni-based single crystal superalloys at various temperatures and strain rates are studied by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. From the simulations, it is found that with the increase of loading, the dislocation network effectively inhibits dislocations emitted in the γ matrix cutting into the ${\gamma }^{\prime }$ phase and absorbs the matrix dislocations to strengthen itself which increases the stability of structure. Under the influence of the temperature, the initial mosaic structure of dislocation network gradually becomes irregular, and the initial misfit stress and the elastic modulus slowly decline as temperature increasing. On the other hand, with the increase of the strain rate, it almost has no effect on the elastic modulus and the way of evolution of dislocation network, but contributes to the increases of the yield stress and tensile strength. Moreover, tension–compression asymmetry of Ni-based single crystal superalloys is also presented based on MD simulations.     

Tensile properties of microtubules: A study by nonlinear molecular structural mechanics modelling

A nonlinear molecular structural mechanics (MSM) model is proposed in this paper for studying the tensile properties of microtubules (MTs). In the nonlinear MSM models, the interactions between tubulin monomers in MTs are treated as nonlinear axial and torsional springs, whose stiffness coefficients are extracted from all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. The Young's modulus and fracture properties of MTs under tension extracted from the present nonlinear MSM models are found to agree well with the existing simulation and experiment results, which shows the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed nonlinear MSM models. In addition, the nonlinear MSM models are also extended to investigate the tensile properties including Young's modulus and fracture strain of MTs possessing lattice defects. The results obtained from nonlinear MSM models are utilized to develop a predictive equation for quickly predicting the tensile properties of MTs with different lattice defect levels.     

Size and temperature dependence of the tensile mechanical properties of zinc blende CdSe nanowires

The effect of size and temperature on the tensile mechanical properties of zinc blende CdSe nanowires is investigated by all atoms molecular dynamic simulation. We found the ultimate tensile strength and Young?s modulus will decrease as the temperature and size of the nanowire increase. The size and temperature dependence are mainly attributed to surface effect and thermally elongation effect. High reversibility of tensile behavior will make zinc blende CdSe nanowires suitable for building efficient nanodevices.     

温度对吡啶离子液体性质影响的分子动力学模拟研究

运用分子动力学模拟方法研究了温度对三种吡啶离子液体[BPy][BF4]、[HPy][BF4]、[OPy][BF4]热力学性质的影响, 得到了每个体系的密度、自扩散系数、电导率和黏度等. 研究结果表明: 随着温度升高, 同一种离子液体的密度减小, 阴阳离子的自扩散系数明显增大, 电导率升高, 而黏度降低. 在同一温度下, 随着阳离子上烷基链的增长, 离子液体的密度减小, 但热力学性质的变化规律并不完全同步. 烷基链长最短的[BPy][BF4]的自扩散系数和电导率在每个温度下均为最大, 而黏度最小; 但烷基碳链更长的[OPy][BF4]和[HPy][BF4]的各种性质相差不大,甚至当温度大于323K时, 烷基链较长的[OPy][BF4]的自扩散系数比[HPy][BF4]的大.     

温度对吡啶离子液体性质影响的分子动力学模拟研究

运用分子动力学模拟方法研究了温度对三种吡啶离子液体[BPy][BF_4]、[HPy][BF_4]、[OPy][BF_4]热力学性质的影响,得到了每个体系的密度、自扩散系数、电导率和黏度等.研究结果表明:随着温度升高,同一种离子液体的密度减小,阴阳离子的自扩散系数明显增大,电导率升高,而黏度降低.在同一温度下,随着阳离子上烷基链的增长,离子液体的密度减小,但热力学性质的变化规律并不完全同步.烷基链长最短的[BPy][BF_4]的自扩散系数和电导率在每个温度下均为最大,而黏度最小;但烷基碳链更长的[OPy][BF_4]和[HPy][BF_4]的各种性质相差不大,甚至当温度大于323 K时,烷基链较长的[OPy][BF_4]的自扩散系数比[HPy][BF_4]的大.     

Molecular dynamics study of void effect on nanoimprint of single crystal aluminum

Pre-existing defects can alter mechanical behavior of materials significantly under applied load. In current study molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to reveal pre-existing void effect on nanoimprint of single crystal Al thin films, such as deformation mechanism and spring back phenomenon. Current simulation results show void acts as strong barrier to dislocation motion, although plastic deformation is dominantly controlled by dislocation activities. It indicates the void volume fraction has strong influence on nanoimprint: the larger the void volume fraction, the smaller the maximum force required for initial dislocation nucleation, and the stronger the interaction between extended dislocation and void. It also demonstrates that there is a critical void volume fraction for minimum spring back, which is resulted from competition between two roles affecting dislocation annihilation.     

A molecular dynamics study of effective parameters on nano-droplet surface tension

The main purpose of this paper is to numerically study the effect of droplet radius, temperature, and surface wettability on droplet surface tension. Moreover, the validity of Young-Laplace equation (Y-L) for nano-droplet is examined. Simulations of droplet surrounded by its vapor and droplet on solid surface are carried out and the results are compared to each other in order to comprehend the role of surface wettability on droplet surface tension. The pair potential for the liquid-liquid and liquid-solid interaction is considered using Lennard-Jones model. Different numbers of atoms and surface wettabilities are employed to generate droplet of different radiuses. In addition, contact angle of droplet on solid surface is computed. Pressure tensor and density profile is locally calculated. Furthermore, liquid pressure is evaluated far from the interface using the virial theorem and gas pressure is obtained using an equation of state. In order to calculate the surface tension, two different approaches are employed; Young-Laplace equation and direct molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The surface tension increases with increase in droplet radius and it is seen that the surface wettability does not directly influence the surface tension.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of thermodynamical properties of copper clusters

The melting and freezing processes of Cu_N (N=180, 256, 360, 408, 500, 628 and 736) nanoclusters are simulated by using micro-canonical molecular dynamics simulation technique. The potential energies and the heat capacities as a function of temperature are obtained. The results reveal that the melting and freezing points increase almost linearly with the atom number in the cluster increasing. All copper nanoclusters have negative heat capacity around the melting and freezing points, and hysteresis effect in the melting/freezing transition is derived in Cu_N nanoclusters for the first time.     

An investigation into the mechanical properties of silicon nanoparticles using molecular dynamics simulations with parallel computing

This study investigates the mechanical properties of cubic silicon nanoparticles with side lengths ranging from 2.7 to 16.3 nm using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with parallel computing technique. The results reveal that the surface energy of the particles increases significantly as the particle size decreases. Furthermore, having passed the point of maximum compressive load, the phase transformation region of the particles gradually transfers from the core to the surface. The small volume of the current nanoparticles suppresses the nucleation of dislocations, and as a result, the maximum strength and Young’s modulus values of all but the smallest of the current nanoparticles are greater than the corresponding values in bulk silicon. Finally, it is found that the silicon nanoparticles with a side length of 10.86 nm exhibit the greatest maximum strength (24 GPa). In nanoparticles with shorter side lengths, the maximum strength decreases significantly as the volume of the nanoparticle is reduced.