APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 79 » Issue 23

Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 4601 - 4604 (1997)

Local Analysis of Structural Instability in Stressed Lattices: Crack Nucleation in a Covalent Solid

Download: PDF (141 kB) or Buy this Article (Use Article Pack) Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

C. S. Jayanthi1, M. Tang2, S. Y. Wu1,5, J. A. Cocks3, and S. Yip4,5
1Department of Physics, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292
2Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550
3Information Technology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292
4Department of Nuclear Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
5Institute For Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106

Received 16 July 1997

For the local analysis of structural instability, a site-dependent measure of local contribution to a global mode is introduced which is decomposed into contributions from individual interatomic bonds. Since this measure incorporates both spatial and dynamical information, the method provides insight into the temporal evolution of the lattice instability. Using this method to study lattice decohesion under pure dilation, we find the crack nucleation process to consist of the onset of instabilities at several distinct sites, followed by coalescence of local instabilities which triggers the bond rupturing along a plane.


©1997 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v79/p4601
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.4601
PACS: 62.20.Mk, 63.10.+a

[ Abstract  |  Previous article  |  Next article  |  Issue 23 ]