Modeling of Crack Growth under Mixed-Mode Loading by a Molecular Dynamics Method and a Linear Fracture Mechanics Approach

LV Stepanova, MECHANICS, RESOURCE AND DIAGNOSTICS OF MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES (MRDMS-2017), 1915, 040059 (2017).

DOI: 10.1063/1.5017407

Atomistic simulations of the central crack growth process in an infinite plane medium under mixed-mode loading using Large-Scale Atomic/ Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS), a classical molecular dynamics code, are performed. The inter-atomic potential used in this investigation is the Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potential. Plane specimens with an initial central crack are subjected to mixed-mode loadings. The simulation cell contains 400,000 atoms. The crack propagation direction angles under different values of the mixity parameter in a wide range of values from pure tensile loading to pure shear loading in a wide range of temperatures (from 0.1 K to 800 K) are obtained and analyzed. It is shown that the crack propagation direction angles obtained by molecular dynamics coincide with the crack propagation direction angles given by the multi-parameter fracture criteria based on the strain energy density and the multi-parameter description of the crack-tip fields. The multi-parameter fracture criteria are based on the multi-parameter stress field description taking into account the higher order terms of the Williams series expansion of the crack tip fields.

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