Related papers: Controlled polymorphic competition -- a path to to…
Review of selected fundamental topics on the interaction between phase transformations, fracture, and other structural changes in inelastic materials is presented. It mostly focuses on the concepts developed in the author's group over last…
Fracture toughness ($K_\mathrm{Ic}$) and fracture strength ($\sigma_\mathrm{f}$) are key criteria in the selection and design of reliable ceramics. However, their experimental characterization remains challenging -- especially for ceramic…
The difference between free surface energy and fracture toughness in amorphous silica is studied via multi-scale simulations. We combine the homogenization of a molecular dynamics fracture model with a phase-field approach to track and…
Experimentally resolving atomic-scale structural changes of a deformed glass remains challenging owing to the disordered nature of glass structure. Here, we show that the structural anisotropy emerges as a general hallmark for different…
The interaction between cracks, as well as their propagation, in single-crystal aluminum is investigated at the atomic scale using the molecular dynamics method and the modified embedded atom method. The results demonstrated that the crack…
Aluminum-Copper (Al-Cu) alloys are essential materials for weight reduction critical structures in the aerospace and automotive industries, yet achieving their maximum ultrahigh-strength potential remains limited by nanoscale defect control…
Nano-scale eutectics, such as rapid solidified Al-Si, exhibit enhanced yield strength and strain hardening but plasticity is limited by cracking of the hard phase (Si). Mechanisms that may suppress cracking and enable plastic co-deformation…
Plasticity in body-centered cubic (BCC) nanocrystals is often associated with twin nucleation phenomena under extreme loading conditions. Here, we reveal unconventional twinning pathways that operate at the intersection of crystal…
Crystal plasticity finite element simulations are frequently employed to predict the plastic anisotropy of polycrystalline metals based on their crystallographic texture. In age-hardenable aluminium alloys, however, the texture-induced…
The response of amorphous materials to an applied strain can be continuous, or instead display a macroscopic stress drop when a shear band nucleates. Such discontinuous response can be observed if the initial configuration is very stable.…
Mechanical amorphization, a widely observed phenomenon, has been utilized to synthesize novel phases by inducing disorder through external loading, thereby expanding the realm of glass-forming systems. Empirically, it has been plausible…
This paper presents an experimental study of the fretting crack nucleation threshold, expressed in terms of loading conditions, with a cylinder/plane contact. The studied material is a damage tolerant aluminium alloy widely used in the…
Traditional laws of friction believe that the friction coefficient of two specific solids takes constant value. However, molecular simulations revealed that the friction coefficient of nanosized asperity depends strongly on contact size and…
High-order optical vortices are inherently unstable, as they tend to split up under perturbation to a series of vortices with unity charge. Control over the perturbation opens up a new degree of freedom to control and tune their location in…
During the phase transitions, diverse states evolve with multiplex phenomena arising from the critical competition. In this study, a displacive martensitic transformation with a lattice shear distortion was unexpectedly observed at the…
A hybrid scheme between large-scale electronic structure calculations is developed and applied to nanocrystalline silicon with more than 10$^5$ atoms. Dynamical fracture processes are simulated under external loads in the [001] direction.…
A comparative study of fracture in Al is carried out by using quantum mechanical and empirical atomistic description of atomic interaction at crack tip. The former is accomplished with the density functional theory (DFT) based…
In many scenarios -- when we bite food or during a crash -- fracture is inevitable. Finding solutions to steer fracture to mitigate its impact or turn it into a purposeful functionality, is therefore crucial. Strategies using composites,…
The strengths of glasses are intricately linked to their atomic-level heterogeneity. Atomistic simulations are frequently used to investigate the statistical physics of this relationship, compensating for the limited spatiotemporal…
Dynamic fracture experiments were performed in PMMA over a wide range of velocities and reveal that the fracture energy exhibits an abrupt 3-folds increase from its value at crack initiation at a well-defined critical velocity, below the…