A simulation study of induced disorder, failure and fracture of perfect metal crystals under uniaxial tension

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Abstract
The behaviour of FCC crystals of the metals platinum, gold, rhodium and silver under uniaxial tension was investigated using atomistic simulation. At temperatures above half the melting temperature all the model metals disordered before they failed by void formation. Investigation of the free energy as a function of order parameter showed that this process occurs when the free energies of the ordered and disordered states are equal, rather than at the limit of metastability of the stretched crystal. At lower temperatures different behaviour was seen in different metals; in the more ductile metals local regions of disorder appear first, while in the other metals defects are generated by sliding of planes of atoms.
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