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Title: Atomistic simulation of tantalum nanoindentation: Effects of indenter diameter, penetration velocity, and interatomic potentials on defect mechanisms and evolution

Journal Article · · Materials Science and Engineering. A, Structural Materials: Properties, Microstructure and Processing
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9]
  1. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; National Univ. of Cuyo, Mendoza (Argentina). Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Mendoza (Argentina)
  2. Technical Univ. of Darmstadt (Germany)
  3. Shanghai Univ. (China). Shanghai Inst. of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics
  4. National Univ. of Cuyo, Mendoza (Argentina). Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences
  5. Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Gothenburg (Sweden). Dept. of Applied Physics
  6. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  7. Univ. of Kaiserslautern (Germany). Physics Dept. and Center for Optics and Materials Sciences (OPTIMAS)
  8. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  9. National Univ. of Cuyo, Mendoza (Argentina). Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Mendoza (Argentina)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Nanoindentation simulations are a helpful complement to experiments. There is a dearth of nanoindentation simulations for bcc metals, partly due to the lack of computationally efficient and reliable interatomic potentials at large strains. For this study, we carry out indentation simulations for bcc tantalum using three different interatomic potentials and present the defect mechanisms responsible for the creation and expansion of the plastic deformation zone: twins are initially formed, giving rise to shear loop expansion and the formation of sequential prismatic loops. The calculated elastic constants as function of pressure as well as stacking fault energy surfaces explain the significant differences found in the defect structures generated for the three potentials investigated in this study. The simulations enable the quantification of total dislocation length and twinning fraction. The indenter velocity is varied and, as expected, the penetration depth for the first pop-in (defect emission) event shows a strain rate sensitivity m in the range of 0.037–0.055. The effect of indenter diameter on the first pop-in is discussed. A new intrinsic length-scale model is presented based on the profile of the residual indentation and geometrically necessary dislocation theory.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); Swedish Research Council (SRC); European Research Council (ERC); German Research Foundation (DFG)
DOE Contract Number:
NA0002080; PICT-PRH-0092; 09-LR-06-118456-MEXM
OSTI ID:
1462253
Report Number(s):
DE-NA0002080; PII: S0921509314008466
Journal Information:
Materials Science and Engineering. A, Structural Materials: Properties, Microstructure and Processing, Vol. 613, Issue C; ISSN 0921-5093
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
MD simulation
Tantalum
Nanoindentation
Plasticity
Twinning