MICROMECHANICAL MODELING OF NANOSTRUCTURED MATERIALS BY POLYCLUSTERING TECHNIQUE

Abstract

We present certain aspects of theoretical modeling of nanostructured materials with some degree of local order. The topological structure of local short-range order versus the long-range spatial heterogeneity of the nanostructure as a whole is described in terms of Voronoi polyhedra, so that the resulting topological tessellations form groups of polyclusters. For so obtained geometry of polycluster microstructure we describe the transition from micro to macro domain by using a generalized theory of micromorphic continuum, where polyclusters are considered as individual elements of micromorphic continuum. Then the master equations of micromorphic continuum can be perceived as a fundamental set of field equations that are needed for further theoretical development of the model. The semi-discrete nature of field variables, which describes the kinematics of deformation in polyclusters, leads to the natural choice of a pair potential function for modeling a short-range order.