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Atomistic Studies of Crack Branching at Bimaterial Interfaces: Preliminary Results

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Sriram Krishnan  and
Markus J Buehler
Sriram Krishnan
Affiliation:
sriram@MIT.EDU, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 77 Mass. Ave, Cambridge, 02139, United States
Markus J Buehler
Affiliation:
mbuehler@MIT.EDU, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 77 Mass. Ave, Room 1-272, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
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Abstract

In this paper, we summarize recent progress in applying atomistic studies of cracking along interfaces of dissimilar materials under quasi-static crack growth conditions. We consider two linear-elastic material strips in which atoms interact with harmonic potentials, with a different spring constant in each layer leading to a soft and a stiff strip. The two strips are bound together with a tunable potential, which allows to independently control the interface and bulk fracture surface energy. An initial crack serves as initiation point for the failure. This provides a model system to investigate how elastic properties and interface strength interplay and determine the crack growth direction, leading to either interfacial cracking or branching into the film material. We observe a clear transition to interface failure when the interface fracture energy is less than 80% of the bulk fracture energy. We further find that branching in the film material is controlled by the elastic properties of the film material, suggesting interfacial cracking for extremely soft films and branching for stiffer films. Analysis of the virial stress field around the crack suggests that the circumferential hoop stress controls the branching behavior.

Keywords

fractureadhesivefilm
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 929: Symposium II – Materials in Extreme Environments , 2006 , 0929-II04-20
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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