A molecular dynamics simulation analysis of mixed mode crack growth

Abstract

An in-depth study of the influence of geometric characteristics (model dimensions, crack length), temperature, strain rate and loading mixing parameter on the plate strength, crack growth and crack propagation direction angle was carried out. The material selected for this study is aluminum. The crack propagation direction angles of a central crack in an aluminum plate under mixed mode loading are determined using the molecular dynamics method realized in LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator). Atomistic modeling of mixed-mode loadings of the plane medium with the central crack allowed us to find all the crack propagation direction angles in the full range of the mixed mode loadings. An embedded atom potential (EAM) available in LAMMPS molecular dynamics (MD) software is utilized to accurately pinpoint mixed-mode crack growth.