Related papers: Controlled polymorphic competition -- a path to to…
We report, through experimental observations and computer simulations, that atomic lattice interlocking can determine whether an object rolls or slides on a surface. We have quantitatively manipulated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a variety of…
High strength and high toughness are usually mutually exclusive in engineering materials. Improving the toughness of strong but brittle materials like ceramics thus relies on the introduction of a metallic or polymeric ductile phase to…
Friction is a ubiquitous phenomenon that greatly affects our everyday lives and is responsible for large amounts of energy loss in industrialised societies. Layered materials such as graphene have interesting frictional properties and are…
Molecular dynamics simulations of crack propagation are performed for two extreme cases of complex metallic alloys (CMAs): In a model quasicrystal the structure is determined by clusters of atoms, whereas the model C15 Laves phase is a…
Mechanical reliability plays an outsized role in determining the durability of flexible electronic devices because of the significant mechanical stresses they can experience during manufacturing and operation. These devices are typically…
Anisotropic core-shell model of a nano-grained polycrystal, proposed recently for nanocrystalline copper, is applied to estimate elastic effective properties for a set of crystals of cubic symmetry. Materials selected for analysis differ in…
The evolution of deformation from plasticity to localization to damage is investigated in ferritic-pearlitic steel through nanometer-resolution microstructure-correlated SEM-DIC (u-DIC) strain mapping, enabled through highly accurate…
The contribution of sliding-induced, atomic-scale instabilities to the kinetic friction force is investigated by molecular dynamics. For this purpose, we derive a relationship between the kinetic friction force $F_{\rm k}$ and the…
During plastic deformation, metals change shape while continuously becoming stronger. The microscopic origin of these processes lies in the proliferation and movement of line defects, dislocations, and the subsequent self-organisation and…
Concentrated solid solution alloys (CSAs) have attracted attention for their promising properties; however, current manufacturing methods face challenges in complexity, high costs, and limited scalability, raising concerns about industrial…
A micromechanical approach is set-up to analyse the increase in elastic stiffness related to development of plastic deformation (the elastoplastic coupling concept) occurring during the compaction of a ceramic powder. Numerical simulations…
We have studied the low speed fracture regime for different glassy materials with variable but controlled length scales of heterogeneity in a carefully mastered surrounding atmosphere. By using optical and atomic force microscopy (AFM)…
We propose that the machinability of hard ceramics can be improved by reversible electrochemical doping. On the example of TiO2, we show in a combined density functional theory-molecular dynamics computational study that a small amount of…
The mechanical behavior of composite materials is significantly influenced by their structure and constituent materials. One emerging class of composite materials is irregular network reinforced composites (NRC's), whose reinforcing phase…
Atomistic simulations using an EAM potential are carried out to investigate the first stages of plasticity in aluminum slabs, in particular the effect of both temperature and step geometry on the nucleation of dislocations from surface…
Truly polymorphic circuits, whose functionality/circuit behavior can be altered using a control variable, can provide tremendous benefits in multi-functional system design and resource sharing. For secure and fault tolerant hardware designs…
Over the past seven years, full-field analyses of a wide range of classical as well as modern quasi-static fracture experiments on nominally elastic brittle materials -- ranging from hard ceramics to soft elastomers -- have repeatedly…
Extreme localization of damage in conventional brittle materials is the source of a host of undesirable effects. We show how artificially engineered metamaterials with all brittle constituents can be designed to ensure that every breakable…
We discuss the plastic behavior of an amorphous matrix reinforced by hard particles. A mesoscopic depinning-like model accounting for Eshelby elastic interactions is implemented. Only the effect of a plastic disorder is considered.…
Soft polymers are ubiquitous materials in nature and as engineering materials with properties varying from rate-independent to rate-dependent. Current fracture toughness measures are non-unique for rate-dependent soft materials for varying…