The fracture behavior of SiC/Cu interpenetrating phase nanocomposites: A molecular dynamics study

摘要

In the present study, the effect of various parameters on the fracture behavior of SiC at atomic scale is studied by using molecular dynamics (MD) method. The parameters such as crack orientation, temperature, presence of a Cu (as a ductile phase), and the volume fraction of the Cu are studied. The presence of Cu phases is found to be very effective method for increasing the ductility of ceramics even at low volume fractions of Cu. However, the efficacy of Cu phase fades out as the temperature increases. Three low-index crack surfaces including (110), (111), and (100) in crystalline 3C-SiC are investigated and it is found that the fracture energy and crack growth direction is totally dependent on the crack orientation and the crack propagation could be totally different for different planes of crack.