research

Size-affected dislocation-mediated plasticity is important in a wide range of materials and technologies. The question of how to explain and predict the effect of size on the properties and response of materials has been at the forefront of mechanics and materials research.

The two-phase solid–liquid coexisting structures of Ni, Cu, and Al are studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the second nearest-neighbor (2NN) modified-embedded atom method (MEAM) potential. For this purpose, the existing 2NN-MEAM parameters for Ni and Cu were modified to make them suitable for the MD simulations of the problems related to the two-phase solid–liquid coexistence of these elements.

F. Xu, M. Potier-Ferry, S. Belouettar, H. Hu

International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2014.12.006

Abstract:

Phase-field crystal (PFC) is a model with atomistic-scale details acting on diffusive time scales. PFC uses the density field as its order parameter, which takes a constant value in the liquid phase and a periodic function in the solid phase. PFC naturally takes into account elasticity, solid–liquid interface free energy, surface anisotropy, and grain boundary free energy by using this single-order parameter in modeling of coexisting solid–liquid structures.

Composites reinforced by thinner fibers are intensively studied in recent years and expected to have better
mechanical properties. With development of nanotechnology, the diameter of fiber can be as thin as
several nanometers, such as nanofibers and nanotubes. Then, do these thinner fibers definitely result in
composites with better mechanical properties? In this paper, the toughening effect of reinforcing fibers in
composites is investigated based on the three-level failure analysis model. It is found that thinner

Vaibhav Agrawal, Kaushik Dayal, Carnegie Mellon University
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2015.04.010 (part I)
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2015.05.001 (part II)