Abstract
A constrained three-dimensional atomistic model of a cracked aluminum single crystal hasbeen employed to investigate the growth behavior of a nanoscale crack in a single crystalusing molecular dynamics simulations with the EAM potential. This study is focused onthe stress field around the crack tip and its evolution during fast crack growth. Simulationresults of the observed nanoscale fracture behavior are presented in terms of atomisticstresses. Major findings from the simulation results are the following: (a) crackgrowth is in the form of void nucleation, growth and coalescence ahead of thecrack tip, thus resembling that of ductile fracture at the continuum scale; (b)void nucleation occurs at a certain distance ahead of the current crack tip orthe forward edge of the leading void ahead of the crack tip; (c) just before voidnucleation the mean atomic stress (or equivalently its ratio to the von Miseseffective stress, which is called the stress constraint or triaxiality) has a highconcentration at the site of void nucleation; and (d) the stress field ahead of the currentcrack tip or the forward edge of the leading void is more or less self-similar (sothat the forward edge of the leading void can be viewed as the effective cracktip).
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