Pressure and cooling rate effect on polyhedron clusters in Cu–Al alloy by using molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

In this study, the microstructural evolution of crystal-type and icosahedral (icos)-type polyhedrons in Cu–50at%Al alloy based on the embedded atom method (EAM) model is studied at two cooling rates under normal and high pressures by using the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method. The cluster-type index method (CTIM) which describes icos and defective icos polyhedrons and the new cluster-type index method (CTIM-2) which describes crystal-type polyhedrons have been used to perform polyhedron analysis in the model alloy system. The results of our simulations demonstrate that the effects of the cooling rate and pressure play an important role in the numbers of polyhedrons and their structures in the system.