title: Interaction of voids and nanoductility in silica glass.
abstract: Multimillion-to-billion-atom molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the interaction of voids in silica glass under hydrostatic tension. Nanometer size cavities nucleate in intervoid ligaments as a result of the expansion of Si-O rings due to a bond-switching mechanism, which involves bond breaking between Si-O and bond formation between that Si and a nonbridging O. With further increase in strain, nanocracks form on void surfaces and ligaments fracture through the growth and coalescence of ligament nanocavities in a manner similar to that observed in ductile metallic alloys.
authors.affiliation: Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0242, USA.
authors.forename: Yi-Chun
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Ken-Ichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.forename: Weiqiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Rajiv K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Kalia
authors.forename: Aiichiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Priya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vashishta