Nanoscale Impact Dynamics Using Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulation is used to investigate dynamic impact behavior at the nanoscale. The classic many-body tight-binding potential is employed to model the atomic force acting between atoms. The impact model of a Cu sphere cluster hitting a Cu substrate is established. Investigated issues include dynamic cluster/substrate interactions, substrate deformation, substrate fracture characteristics, force transmission, energy transformation between cluster and substrate, cluster motion characteristics, debris cloud formation characteristics, and the characteristics of the dynamic impact behavior at different cluster incident energies. The results show that an elastic necking phenomenon behavior is found for the case of clusters landing at the relatively low incident energy of 0.1 eV/atom. The phenomenon of impact hole recovery, which is the result of interatomic attractive forces applied by the substrate on the cluster atoms, is observed at an incident energy of 2 eV. In this situation, the cluster at...