Related papers: Mechanical Failure of a Small and Confined Solid
We report results of computer simulations of two-dimensional hard disks confined within a quasi one-dimensional ``hard-wall'' channel, a few atomic radii wide. Starting from a commensurate triangular solid a rescaling of the system size…
We show using computer simulations and mean field theory that a system of particles in two dimensions, when confined laterally by a pair of parallel hard walls within a quasi one dimensional channel, possesses several anomalous structural…
Failure of amorphous solids is fundamental to various phenomena, including landslides and earthquakes. Recent experiments indicate that highly plastic regions form elongated structures that are especially apparent near the maximal shear…
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.…
It is shown here that fracture after a brief plastic strain, typically of a few percents, is a necessary consequence of the polycrystalline nature of the materials. The polycrystal undergoing plastic deformation is modeled as a flowing…
We propose a general formalism to characterize orientational frustration of smectic liquid crystals in confinement by interpreting the emerging networks of grain boundaries as objects with a topological charge. In a formal idealization,…
The known ground state of ultrathin smectic films confined to the surface of a sphere is described by four +1/2 defects assembled on a great circle and a director which follows geodesic lines. Using a simple perturbative approach we show…
Impacted with sufficiently large stress, a dense, initially liquid-like suspension can be forced into a solid-like state through the process of shear jamming. While the onset of shear jamming has been investigated extensively, less is known…
A growing or compressed thin elastic sheet adhered to a rigid substrate can exhibit a buckling instability, forming an inward hump. Our study shows that the strip morphology depends on the delicate balance between the compression energy and…
We deform, in pure shear, a thin sample of Cu$_{50}$Zr$_{50}$ metallic glass using a molecular dynamics simulation up to, and including, failure. The experiment is repeated ten times in order to have average values and standard deviations.…
We investigate how material rigidity acts as a key control parameter for the failure of solids under stress. In both experiments and simulations, we demonstrate that material failure can be continuously tuned by varying the underlying…
The accurate measurement of fracture resistance in elastomers is essential for predicting the mechanical limits of soft devices. Usually, this is achieved by performing tearing or peeling experiments on thin-sheet samples. Here, we show…
A flux liquid can condense into a smectic crystal in a pure layered superconductors with the magnetic field oriented nearly parallel to the layers. If the smectic order is commensurate with the layering, this crystal is {\sl stable} to…
We demonstrate that plastic deformation in solids is associated with a dynamic transition that is reminiscent to the transition from a superconducting to a mixed phase in Type II superconductors. We report analytic calculations, extensive…
The effect of cylindrical confinement on the phase behaviour of a system of parallel hard rods is studied using Onsager's second virial theory. The hard rods are represented as hard cylinders of diameter $D$ and length $L$, while the…
The precise mechanisms underlying the failure of multi-phase materials may be strongly dependent on the material's microstructural morphology. Micromechanical modeling has provided much insight into this dependence, but uncertainties remain…
Volume alteration in solid materials is a common cause of material failure. Here we investigate the crack formation in thin elastic layers attached to a substrate. We show that small variations in the volume contraction and substrate…
The rigidity transition occurs when, as the density of microscopic components is increased, a disordered medium becomes able to transmit and ensure macroscopic mechanical stability, owing to the appearance of a space-spanning rigid…
Repeated loading of a solid leads to microstructural damage that ultimately results in catastrophic material failure. While posing a major threat to the stability of virtually all materials, the microscopic origins of fatigue, especially…
A rectangular thin elastic sheet is deformed by forcing a contact between two points at the middle of its length. A transition to buckling with stress focusing is reported for the sheets sufficiently narrow with a critical width…