Atomistic exploration of deformation mechanisms in metallic nanowires. ABC as a promising approach to overcome timescale limitations of molecular dynamics
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Abstract
This thesis provides an atomistic exploration of deformation mechanisms in single-crystal metallic nanowires subjected to bending and shear stresses. A significant aspect of the work involves evaluating the ABC method as a promising computational approach to overcome the inherent timescale limitations of Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. Through comparative analyses, distinct deformation mechanisms such as dislocation nucleation and propagation, twinning, detwinning, twin-boundary migration, and five-fold twin (FFT) boundary formation were systematically identified. While MD simulations were constrained by short simulation timescales, ABC successfully captured slow, time-dependent plastic deformation phenomena such as gradual twin-boundary migrations and stacking fault formations. Additionally, both methods revealed the formation of FFT boundaries, occurring rapidly in MD and gradually in ABC simulations, highlighting ABC’s capability to mimic long-term deformation behaviors. This work emphasizes the directional dependence of deformation modes and underscores ABC’s potential to significantly extend computational capabilities. Ultimately, these findings provide critical insights into nanowire deformation mechanisms, laying the groundwork for future research focused on optimizing nanomaterial reliability and performance.