Lattice instability in β-SiC and simulation of brittle fracture
- 1 September 1994
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 76 (5) , 2719-2725
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.357575
Abstract
Brittle fracture of β‐SiC (polytype 3C) under hydrostatic tension has been modeled by molecular dynamics simulation using an interatomic potential function that treats the solid as fully covalent. The critical stress at which the lattice becomes structurally unstable is shown to agree quantitatively with that predicted by stability analysis based on elastic stiffness coefficients. The instability mode is the spinodal (vanishing of bulk modulus), and decohesion occurs as spontaneous nucleation of cracking on {111} shuffle planes. Atomic relaxation on the newly generated cracked surfaces appears to take place immediately following crack opening.This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
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