Influence of molecular parameters on the stress dependence of viscous and elastic properties of polypropylene melts in shear

The stress dependencies of the steady-state viscosity η and, particularly, that of the steady-state elastic compliance J _e of various linear isotactic polypropylenes (PP) and one long-chain branched PP are investigated using creep-recovery tests. The creep stresses applied range from 2 to 10,000 Pa. In order to discuss the stress-dependent viscosity η and elastic compliance J _e with respect to the influence of the weight average molar mass M _w and the polydispersity factor M _w/M _n the PP are characterized by SEC–MALLS. For the linear PP, linear steady-state elastic compliances J_e⁰J_{\rm e}^0 in the range of 10^− 5–10^− 3 Pa^− 1 are obtained depending on the molar mass distribution. J_e⁰J_{\rm e}^0 of the LCB-PP is distinctly higher and comes to lie at around 10^− 2 Pa^− 1. J_e⁰J_{\rm e}^0 is found to be independent of M _w but strongly dependent on polydispersity. η and J _e decrease with increasing stress. For the linear PP, J _e as a function of the stress τ is temperature independent. The higher M _w/M _n the stronger is the shear thinning of η and the more pronounced is the stress dependence of J _e. For the LCB-PP, the strongest stress dependence of η and J _e is observed. Furthermore, for all PP J _e reacts more sensitively to an increasing stress than η. A qualitative explanation for the stronger stress dependence of J _e compared to η is given by analyzing the contribution of long relaxation times to the viscosity and elasticity.     

On the role of piezoelectricity in phonon properties and thermal conductivity of GaN nanofilms

The effect of piezoelectricity on phonon properties and thermal conductivity of gallium nitride(Ga N)nanofilms is theoretically investigated. The elasticity model is utilized to derive the phonon properties in spatially confined Ga N nanofilms. The piezoelectric constitutive relation in Ga N nanofilms is taken into account in calculating the phonon dispersion relation. The modified phonon group velocity and phonon density of state as well as the phonon thermal conductivity are also obtained due to the contribution of piezoelectricity. Theoretical results show that the piezoelectricity in Ga N nanofilms can change significantly the phonon properties such as the phonon group velocity and density of states,resulting in the variation of the phonon thermal conductivity of Ga N nanofilms remarkably. Moreover,the piezoelectricity of Ga N can modify the dependence of thermal conductivity on the geometrical size and temperature. These results can be useful in modeling the thermal performance in the active region of Ga N-based electronic devices.     

Crystallographic orientation and size dependence of tension-compression asymmetry in molybdenum nano-pillars

Uniaxial tension and compression experiments on [0 0 1] and [0 1 1] oriented molybdenum nano-pillars exhibit tension-compression asymmetry, a difference in attained stresses in compression vs. tension, which is found to depend on crystallographic orientation and sample size. We find that (1) flow stresses become higher at smaller diameters in both orientations and both loading directions, (2) compressive flow stresses are higher than tensile ones in [0 0 1] orientation, and visa versa in [0 1 1] orientation, and (3) this tension-compression asymmetry is in itself size dependent. We attribute these phenomena to the dependence of twinning vs. antitwinning deformation on loading direction, to the non-planarity of screw dislocation cores in Mo crystals, and to the possibly lesser role of screw dislocations in governing nano-scale plasticity compared with bulk Mo.     

Molecular dynamics study of size, temperature and rate dependent thermomechanical properties of copper nanofilms

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the thermomechanical properties of copper nanofilms at different temperatures and extremely-high loading rates. The results show a drastic temperature softening effect on the film strength and modulus. The increase of strain rate could result in a much higher strength while the modulus is relatively less affected. It is shown, based on the stress results, that the observed “smaller is softer” and “smaller is stronger” behaviors of nanofilms might be due to the surface plasticity and the volumetric dislocations, respectively. It is also found that the thinner a nanofilm, the smaller the thermal expansion coefficient. The present work reveals that the quasistatic thermomechanical properties of bulk copper at room temperature might be inadequate for the continuum-based study of thermomechanical response of copper nanofilms due to ultrafast laser heating.     

Optimal material orientation of linear and non-linear elastic 3D anisotropic materials

Optimal material orientation problems of linear and non-linear elastic three-dimensional anisotropic materials are studied. Most commonly, the energy based formulation is applied for solving orientational design problems of anisotropic materials, considering elastic energy density as a measure of the stress strain state. The same approach is used in the current study, but the strength criteria based approaches are also discussed. A simple relation between the stationary conditions in terms of Euler angles and the optimality conditions in terms of strains is pointed out. The complexity analysis of the different existing optimality conditions has been performed. The solution of the posed optimization problem is decomposed into the strain level solution, search for global extremes and evaluation of Euler angles (parameters). The results obtained are extended to some nonlinear elastic material models.     

Elastic fields generated by inhomogeneities: Far-field asymptotics,its shape dependence and relation to the effective elastic properties

We discuss connections between the effective elastic properties of a solid with inhomogeneities and the far-field asymptotics of the elastic fields generated by them. We focus on the dependence of the far-field asymptotics on the inhomogeneity shape. This shape dependence in the inhomogeneity problem is in contrast with shape independence of the far field in the eigenstrain problem. For the latter, the far field applies to inclusions of any shape. We show that the external fields in the eigenstrain – and the inhomogeneity problems are interrelated by the same tensor that characterizes the compliance contribution of an inhomogeneity.     

Size-dependent elastic properties of micro- and nano-honeycombs

Detailed mathematical derivation and simple closed form results for the size-dependent elastic properties of micro- and nano-sized honeycombs are presented in this paper. The results indicate that at micrometer scale, strain gradient has a dominant effect and at nano-meter scale, surface elasticity dominates the effect on the honeycomb elastic properties. The in-plane elastic properties of a nano- or micro-honeycomb could be controlled to vary over a range of around 10% by adjusting the initial stress in the cell walls by applying an electric potential. In addition, the bending and shear rigidities of some commonly used micro- and nano-structural elements have been obtained and presented in this paper, which could be of important applications in the design of MEMS and NEMS.     

Frequency dependence of the effective elastic moduli of cavernous bodies

The dependence of the effective parameters of microheterogeneous media on the frequency and structure of the pore space is obtained using the boundary integral equation method. The potential method is first used to solve dynamic three-dimensional elastic problems in multiply connected domains in the case of stationary oscillations. It is shown that if the wavelength corresponds to a finite number of blocks, the effective elastic moduli decrease.     

Anisotropy of elastic properties of materials

Papers dealing with the generalized Hooke’s law for linearly elastic anisotropic media are reviewed. The papers considered are based on Kelvin’s approach disclosing the structure of the generalized Hooke’s law, which is determined by six eigenmoduli of elasticity and six orthogonal eigenstates. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 49, No. 6, pp. 131–151, November–December, 2008.     

Structure dependent elastic properties of supergraphene

Complete replacement of aromatic carbon bonds in graphene by carbyne chains gives rise to supergraphene whose mechanical properties are expected to depend on its structure. However, this dependence is to date unclear. In this paper, explicit expressions for the in-plane stiffness and Poisson’s ratio of supergraphene are obtained using a mole-cular mechanics model. The theoretical results show that the in-plane stiffness of supergraphene is drastically (at least one order) smaller than that of graphene, whereas its Pois-son’s ratio is higher than 0.5. As the index number increases (i.e., the length of carbyne chains increases and the bond density decreases), the in-plane stiffness of supergraphene decreases while the Poisson’s ratio increases. By analyzing the relation among the layer modulus, in-plane stiffness and Poisson’s ratio, it is revealed that the mechanism of the faster decrease in the in-plane stiffness than the bond density is due to the increase of Poisson’s ratio. These findings are useful for future applications of supergraphene in nanomechanical systems.     

Macroscopic elastic properties of regular lattices

In this paper we study analytically the elastic properties of the 2-D and 3-D regular lattices consisting of bonded particles. The particle-scale stiffnesses are derived from the given macroscopic elastic constants (i.e. Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio). Firstly a bonded lattice model is presented. This model permits six kinds of relative motion and corresponding forces between each bonded particle pair. By comparing the strain energy distributions between the discrete lattices and the continuum, the explicit relationship between the microscopic and macroscopic elastic parameters can be obtained for the 2-D hexagonal lattice and the 3-D hexagonal close-packed and face-centered cubic structures. The results suggest that the normal stiffness is determined by Young's modulus and the particle size (in 3-D), and that the ratio of the shear to normal stiffness is related to Poisson's ratio. Rotational stiffness depends on the normal stiffness, shear stiffness and particle sizes. Numerical tests are carried out to validate the analytical results. The results in this paper have theoretical implications for the calibration of the spring stiffnesses in the Discrete Element Method.     

Indentation Schmid factor and orientation dependence of nanoindentation pop-in behavior of NiAl single crystals

Instrumented nanoindentation techniques have been widely used to characterize the small-scale mechanical behavior of materials. The elastic-plastic transition during nanoindentation is often indicated by a sudden displacement burst (pop-in) in the measured load-displacement curve. In defect-free single crystals, the pop-in is believed to be the result of homogeneous dislocation nucleation because the maximum shear stress corresponding to the pop-in load approaches the theoretical strength of the materials and because the statistical distribution of pop-in stresses is consistent with what is expected for a thermally activated process of homogeneous dislocation nucleation. This paper investigates whether this process is affected by crystallography and stress components other than the resolved shear stress. A Stroh formalism coupled with the two-dimensional Fourier transformation is used to derive the analytical stress fields in elastically anisotropic solids under Hertzian contact, which allows the determination of an indentation Schmid factor, namely, the ratio of maximum resolved shear stress to the maximum contact pressure. Nanoindentation tests were conducted on B2-structured NiAl single crystals with different surface normal directions. This material was chosen because it deforms at room temperature by {1 1 0}〈0 0 1〉 slip and thus avoids the complexity of partial dislocation nucleation. Good agreement is obtained between the experimental data and the theoretically predicted orientation dependence of pop-in loads based on the indentation Schmid factor. Pop-in load is lowest for indentation directions close to 〈1 1 1〉 and highest for those close to 〈0 0 1〉. In nanoindentation, since the stress component normal to the slip plane is typically comparable in magnitude to the resolved shear stress, we find that the pressure sensitivity of homogeneous dislocation nucleation cannot be determined from pop-in tests. Our statistical measurements generally confirm the thermal activation model of homogeneous dislocation nucleation. That is, the extracted dependence of activation energy on resolved shear stress is almost the same for all the indentation directions considered in this study, except for those close to 〈0 0 1〉. Because very high pop-in loads are measured for orientations close to 〈0 0 1〉, which implies a large contact area at pop-in, there is a higher probability of activating pre-existing dislocations in these orientations, which may explain the discrepancy near 〈0 0 1〉.     

Extreme Poisson's ratios and related elastic crystal properties

With the aim of understanding anisotropic crystals that possess a negative Poisson's ratio and to lay a foundation for investigating molecular mechanisms, we discuss the definition of the ratio and establish conditions on the compliance that govern its sign. We derive results on orientation averaging that are useful in the context of anisotropy and helpful in the investigation of isotropic polycrystals. We discuss α-cristobalite, a polymorph of silicon dioxide that possesses interesting negative ratio properties in single crystals and hypothetical polycrystals. In this connection, we draw attention to the transverse compliance as an alternative and simpler metric for gaging the ratio and for orientation averaging. For α-cristobalite, we arrive at new results for the directions that yield the most negative Poisson's ratio. This result should be of value in divining the underlying molecular mechanism that explains the negative values of Poisson's ratio in α-cristobalite, a crystal of tetragonal symmetry that possesses six independent elastic constants.     

Identification of elastic properties for two-layer composites

An identification method for evaluating the elastic properties of two-layer composites is proposed. The method is estimated for different parameter values.     

Effective elastic properties of periodic composite medium

A new method is presented for calculating the bulk effective elastic stiffness tensor of a two-component composite with a periodic microstructure. The basic features of this method are similar to the one introduced by Bergman and Dunn (1992) for the dielectric problem. It is based on a Fourier representation of an integro-differential equation for the displacement field, which is used to produce a continued-fraction expansion for the elastic moduli. The method enabled us to include a much larger number of Fourier components than some previously proposed Fourier methods. Consequently our method provides the possibility of performing reliable calculations of the effective elastic tensor of periodic composites that are neither dilute nor low contrast, and are not restricted to arrays of nonoverlapping inclusions. We present results for a cubic array of nonoverlapping spheres, intended to serve as a test of quality, as well as results for a cubic array of overlapping spheres and a two dimensional hexagonal array of circles (a model for a fiber reinforced material) for comparison with previous work.     

Analyzing the orientation dependence of stresses in polycrystals using vertices of the single crystal yield surface and crystallographic fibers of orientation space

The influence of the polygonal geometry of the restricted slip-associated yield surface on the distribution of stresses over a polycrystalline aggregate is examined. The vertices of the yield surface (stress states corresponding to polyslip) are grouped according to symmetries imposed by crystal structure. A measure of coaxiality between crystal stresses and yield surface vertex stresses is used to quantify the proximity of the stress in each crystal to a yield surface vertex. It is shown that for prescribed stress states, crystal stresses align more closely with certain families of vertices than with others and this relation between crystal and vertex stresses is found to depend on crystallographic fibers. Using this information, the stress distributions from finite element simulations of face centered cubic polycrystals are analyzed for different stress states ranging from uniaxial to balanced biaxial. Over the fundamental region of orientations, the propensity for the stress to align with a vertex is demonstrated. Further, the stresses in elements contributing to certain crystallographic fibers are shown to favor the vertex families aligned with those fibers. The implications of these results on mechanical behaviors, especially with respect to those observed in diffraction experiments, are discussed.     

Size effects on strength, toughness and fatigue crack growth of gradient elastic solids

The present study investigates the microstructural size effect on the strength of a bar under axial loading, and on the toughness and crack growth of a beam under three-point bending within the framework of strain gradient elasticity. The gradient responses have been found considerably tougher as compared to the classical theory predictions and the observed deviation increases with increasing values of the non-dimensional parameter g/L (microstructural length over structural length). Based on the analytical solution of the strain energy release rate for the three-point bending case, a new, simple and universal, strain gradient elasticity, brittle fracture criterion and a new, size adjusted fatigue crack growth law have been established. Finally, the analytical predictions of the current modeling compare well with previous experimental data, based on three-point bending tests on single-edge notched concrete beams.     

Residual stresses and mechanical properties of a ZnO pyroelectric sensor

The multilayer composite film stack is a common feature of the microsensors based on thin film technology. In this paper, we propose an analytical model to investigate the Young’s moduli, hardness, and residual stresses of the constitutive film layers of a multilayer film stack. A multilayer film stresses model is derived to evaluate the residual stress distributions in the constitutive film layers of a ZnO pyroelectric sensor. A good agreement among the multilayer film stresses model, the grain morphologies characterized by scanning electron microscopy, the mechanical properties testing by nanoindentation, and the voltage responsivity measurement of the ZnO pyroelectric sensor is found in this paper. The proposed multilayer film stresses model can therefore be used to quantitatively analyze the film stresses and proceed to the optimization of thin film deposition process.