Pressure effects on grain boundary plasticity in nanophase metals

E.M. BRINGA; A. CARO; E. LEVEUGLE

APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS

AMER INST PHYSICS

Lugar: American Institute of Physics; Año: 2006 vol. 89 p. 1 - 3

0003-6951

Grain boundary sliding is often the picture that explains computer simulation results and experiments on plasticity of nanophase materials. Using atomistic computer simulations we perform a detailed study of the effects of high hydrostatic pressure on nanophase Cu plasticity and find that it can be understood in terms of pressure dependent grain boundary sliding controlled by a Mohr-Coulomb law. This result explains recent findings on pressure-induced ultrahigh strength observed in computer simulations of shocks in nanophase Cu reported by Bringa et al. [Science 309, 1838 (2005) ].