Yield strength in nanocrystalline Cu during high strain rate deformation

NQ Vo and RS Averback and P Bellon and A Caro, SCRIPTA MATERIALIA, 61, 76-79 (2009).

DOI: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2009.03.003

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the yield strength of thermally annealed nanocrystalline Cu samples. For strain rates of 1 x 10(10) and 1 x 10(9) s(-1), the observed yield strength scales with the fractional number of grain boundary (GB) atoms. This observation suggests a new scaling behavior for the onset of plasticity in nanocrystalline materials, controlled not by the grain size alone, but by a combination of both grain size and degree of GB relaxation, as measured by the GB volume. (c) 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Return to Publications page