Mechanism of the superior mechanical strength of nanometer-sized metal single crystals revealed
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) DivisionPhysical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2013-10Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/594101
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Clear understanding of the superior mechanical strength of nanometer-sized metal single crystals is required to derive advanced mechanical components retaining such superiority. Although high quality studies have been reported on nano-crystalline metals, the superiority of small single crystals has neither been fundamentally explained nor quantified to this date. Here we present a molecular dynamics study of aluminum single crystals in the size range from 4.1 nm to 40.5 nm. We show that the ultimate mechanical strength deteriorates exponentially as the single crystal size increases. The small crystals superiority is explained by their ability to continuously form vacancies and to recover them. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.Citation
Afify ND, Salem HG, Yavari A, El Sayed T (2013) Mechanism of the superior mechanical strength of nanometer-sized metal single crystals revealed. Computational Materials Science 78: 34–38. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2013.05.011.Publisher
Elsevier BVJournal
Computational Materials Scienceae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.commatsci.2013.05.011