Detecting local spots in network materials prone to mechanical failure

Abstract

The prediction of the onset of fracture is a challenging issue in the mechanics of disordered materials. In this contribution, we show that the fracture process in network glasses, such as silica glass, turns out to be a complex phenomenon that originates from specific spots that have the size of a few hundred atoms only. We apply pure shear deformation to identify local rearrangement spots prone to material damage. These spots are analyzed using stress drop steps, originally used for densely packed disordered systems.