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Spontaneous material shape changes, such as swelling, growth or thermal expansion, can be used to trigger dramatic elastic instabilities in thin shells. These instabilities originate in geometric incompatibility between the preferred…
We performed molecular dynamics (MD) experiments to explore dry sliding friction at the nanoscale. We used the setup comprised of a spherical particle built up of 32,000 aluminium atoms, resting on a semi-space with a free surface, modelled…
We analyze systems of clusters and interacting upon colliding---a collision between two clusters may lead to merging or fragmentation---and we also investigate the influence of additional spontaneous fragmentation events. We consider both…
Gravitational instability plays an important role in driving gas accretion in massive protostellar discs. Particularly strong is the global gravitational instability, which arises when the disc mass is of order 0.1 of the mass of the…
We approach the problem of heterogeneous dynamic fracture by considering spatiotemporal perturbations to planar crack fronts. Front propagation is governed by local energy balance between the elastic energy per unit area available to…
Description of the transitional process from a static to a dynamic frictional regime is a fundamental problem of modern physics. Previously we developed a model based on the well-known Frenkel-Kontorova model to describe dry macroscopic…
The mass transfer of interstitial impurities in a crystalline lattice under the influence of the fast-moving deformation disturbance of the type of a shock wave is considered. The velocity of the movement of the disturbance is supposed to…
A two-dimensional earthquake model that consists of a single block resting upon a slowly moving rough surface and connected by two springs to rigid supports is studied. Depending on the elastic anisotropy and the friction force three…
Static and dynamic frictional phenomena at the interface with random impurities are investigated in a two-chain model with incommensurate structure. Static frictional force is caused by the impurity pinning and/or by the pinning due to the…
A correlation is established between the macro-scale friction regimes of metals and a transition between two dominant atomistic mechanisms of deformation. Metals tend to exhibit bi-stable friction behavior -- low and converging or high and…
We study Mode I fracture in a viscoelastic lattice model with a nonlinear force law, with a focus on the velocity and linear stability of the steady-state propagating solution. This study is a continuation both of the study of the…
The results obtained from molecular dynamics simulations of the friction at an interface between polymer melts and weakly attractive crystalline surfaces are reported. We consider a coarse-grained bead-spring model of linear chains with…
Even the most regular stick-slip frictional sliding is always stochastic, with irregularity in both the intervals between slip events and the sizes of the associated stress drops. Applying small-amplitude oscillations to the shear force, we…
The solar system's dynamical state can be explained by an orbital instability among the giant planets. A recent model has proposed that the giant planet instability happened during terrestrial planet formation. This scenario has been shown…
The rupture of the interface joining two materials under frictional contact controls their macroscopic sliding. Interface rupture dynamics depend markedly on the mechanical properties of the bulk materials that bound the frictional…
Sliding friction across a thin soft lubricant film typically occurs by stick-slip, the lubricant fully solidifying at stick, yielding and flowing at slip. The static friction force per unit area preceding slip is known from molecular…
Collisions are the core agent of planet formation. In this work, we derive an analytic description of the dynamical outcome for any collision between gravity-dominated bodies. We conduct high-resolution simulations of collisions between…
When branching is suppressed, rapid cracks undergo a dynamic instability from a straight to an oscillatory path at a critical velocity $v_c$. In a systematic experimental study using a wide range of different brittle materials, we first…
We investigate the fragmentation process of solid materials with crystalline and amorphous phases using the discrete element method. Damage initiates inside spherical samples above the contact zone in a region where the circumferential…
Dislocation slip is a general deformation mode and governs the strength of metals. Via discrete dislocation dynamics and molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the strain rate and dislocation density dependence of the strength of…