Edge Cracks in Nickel and Aluminium Single Crystals: A Molecular Dynamics Study

S Chandra and MK Samal and VM Chavan and RJ Patel, DAE SOLID STATE PHYSICS SYMPOSIUM 2015, 1731, 100001 (2016).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4948007

A molecular dynamics study of edge cracks in Ni and Al single crystals under mode-I loading conditions is presented. Simulations are performed using embedded-atom method potentials for Ni and Al at a temperature of 0.5K. The results reveal that Ni and Al show different fracture mechanisms. Overall failure behavior of Ni is brittle, while fracture in Al proceeds through void nucleation and coalescence with a zig-zag pattern of crack growth. The qualitative nature of results is discussed in the context of vacancy-formation energies and surface energies of the two FCC metals.

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