Nanovoid growth in BCC alpha-Fe: influences of initial void geometry

SZ Xu and YQ Su, MODELLING AND SIMULATION IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, 24, 085015 (2016).

DOI: 10.1088/0965-0393/24/8/085015

The growth of voids has a great impact on the mechanical properties of ductile materials by altering their microstructures. Exploring the process of void growth at the nanoscale helps in understanding the dynamic fracture of metals. While some very recent studies looked into the effects of the initial geometry of an elliptic void on the plastic deformation of face-centered cubic metals, a systematic study of the initial void ellipticity and orientation angle in body-centered cubic (BCC) metals is still lacking. In this paper, large scale molecular dynamics simulations with millions of atoms are conducted, investigating the void growth process during tensile loading of metallic thin films in BCC alpha-Fe. Our simulations elucidate the intertwined influences on void growth of the initial ellipticity and initial orientation angle of the void. It is shown that these two geometric parameters play an important role in the stress-strain response, the nucleation and evolution of defects, as well as the void size/outline evolution in alpha-Fe thin films. Results suggest that, together with void size, different initial void geometries should be taken into account if a continuum model is to be applied to nanoscale damage progression.

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