Reversible plasticity in amorphous materials
Abstract
A fundamental assumption in our understanding of material rheology is that when microscopic deformations are reversible, the material responds elastically to external loads. Plasticity, i.e. dissipative and irreversible macroscopic changes in a material, is assumed to be the consequence of irreversible microscopic events. Here we show direct evidence for reversible plastic events at the microscopic scale in both experiments and simulations of two-dimensional foam. In the simulations, we demonstrate a link between reversible plastic rearrangement events and pathways in the potential energy landscape of the system. These findings represent a fundamental change in our understanding of materials--microscopic reversibility does not necessarily imply elasticity.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0707.4014,
title = {Reversible plasticity in amorphous materials},
author = {M. Lundberg and K. Krishan and N. Xu and C. S. O'Hern and M. Dennin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0707.4014},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Revised paper