TY - JOUR
T1 - Dual phase nano-particulate AlN composite — A kind of ceramics with high strength and ductility
AU - Zhao, Yinbo
AU - Peng, Xianghe
AU - Yang, Bo
AU - Huang, Cheng
AU - Hu, Ning
AU - Yan, Cheng
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11332013 ), ARC Discovery Project ( 180101955 and 180102003 ), the program of China Scholarships Council (No. 201606050043 ), The High Performance Computing (HPC) and CARF at QUT have kindly provided access to their facilities.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.
PY - 2019/11
Y1 - 2019/11
N2 - Ceramics are widely used in many fields due to their excellent properties. However, the brittle fracture is a short board restricting their applications. To understand their deformation mechanism and explore a way to enhance both the strength and ductility, we investigated the mechanical behaviour of dual-phase AlNs composed of amorphous AlN matrix and crystalline nanoparticles under compression via molecular dynamics simulations. The stress concentration exists at the interface of nanocomposite AlN, where the particles and matrix are in the tensile and compressive states of stress, respectively. Strain hardening occurs when crystalline nanoparticle fraction fv ≥ 40.9%, attributed to the intersection between shear bands. The phase transformation from wurtzite structure (B4) to graphene-like structure (GL) is observed in the crystalline phase, as a result of high hydrostatic stress. After phase transformation, the particle might be cut into half during further compression along with the recovery of the GL structure to the wurtzite structure that could still bear load. The investigation of the effects of the volume fraction, surface-to-volume ratio, distribution pattern of the crystalline nanoparticles indicates that the dual-phase AlN nanocomposite with fv ≥ 40.9% and triangle distribution of particles would possess both higher strength and ductility.
AB - Ceramics are widely used in many fields due to their excellent properties. However, the brittle fracture is a short board restricting their applications. To understand their deformation mechanism and explore a way to enhance both the strength and ductility, we investigated the mechanical behaviour of dual-phase AlNs composed of amorphous AlN matrix and crystalline nanoparticles under compression via molecular dynamics simulations. The stress concentration exists at the interface of nanocomposite AlN, where the particles and matrix are in the tensile and compressive states of stress, respectively. Strain hardening occurs when crystalline nanoparticle fraction fv ≥ 40.9%, attributed to the intersection between shear bands. The phase transformation from wurtzite structure (B4) to graphene-like structure (GL) is observed in the crystalline phase, as a result of high hydrostatic stress. After phase transformation, the particle might be cut into half during further compression along with the recovery of the GL structure to the wurtzite structure that could still bear load. The investigation of the effects of the volume fraction, surface-to-volume ratio, distribution pattern of the crystalline nanoparticles indicates that the dual-phase AlN nanocomposite with fv ≥ 40.9% and triangle distribution of particles would possess both higher strength and ductility.
KW - Interface
KW - Molecular dynamics simulations
KW - Nanocomposite AlN
KW - Phase transformation
KW - Shear band
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ceramint.2019.06.239
DO - 10.1016/j.ceramint.2019.06.239
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067893460
VL - 45
SP - 19845
EP - 19855
JO - Ceramics International
JF - Ceramics International
SN - 0272-8842
IS - 16
ER -