Molecular dynamics studies of thermal dissipation during shock induced spalling

MZ Xiang and HB Hu and J Chen and Y Liao, JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, 114, 123509 (2013).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4821341

Under shock loadings, the temperature of materials may vary dramatically during deformation and fracture processes. Thus, thermal effect is important for constructing dynamical failure models. Existing works on thermal dissipation effects are mostly from meso-to macro-scale levels based on phenomenological assumptions. The main purpose of the present work is to provide several atomistic scale perspectives about thermal dissipation during spall fracture by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations on single-crystalline and nanocrystalline Pb. The simulations show that temperature arising starts from the vicinity of voids during spalling. The thermal dissipation rate in void nucleation stage is much higher than that in the later growth and coalescence stages. Both classical spallation and micro-spallation are taken into account. Classical spallation is corresponding to spallation phenomenon where materials keep in solid state during shock compression and release stages, while micro-spallation is corresponding to spallation phenomenon where melting occurs during shock compression and release stages. In classical spallation, whether residuary dislocations are produced in pre-spall stages has significant influences on thermal dissipation rate during void growth and coalescence. The thermal dissipation rates decrease as shock intensity increases. When the shock intensity exceeds the threshold of micro-spallation, the thermal dissipation rate in void nucleation stage drops precipitously. It is found that grain boundaries mainly influence the thermal dissipation rate in void nucleation stage in classical spallation. In micro-spallation, the grain boundary effects are insignificant. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

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