Dynamics of wing cracks and nanoscale damage in glass.
We investigate initiation, growth, and healing of wing cracks in confined silica glass by molecular dynamics simulations. Under dynamic compression, frictional sliding of precrack surfaces nucleates nanovoids which evolve into nanocrack columns at the precrack tip. Nanocrack columns merge to form a wing crack, which grows via coalescence with nanovoids in the direction of maximum compression. Lateral confinement arrests the growth and partially heals the wing crack. Growth and arrest of the wing crack occur repeatedly, as observed in dynamic compression experiments on brittle solids under lateral confinement.
Lu
Zhen
Z
Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0242, USA.
Nomura
Ken-ichi
K
Sharma
Ashish
A
Wang
Weiqiang
W
Zhang
Cheng
C
Nakano
Aiichiro
A
Kalia
Rajiv
R
Vashishta
Priya
P
Bouchaud
Elisabeth
E
Rountree
Cindy
C