Statistical analysis of fracture of silica glass using molecular dynamics

Abstract

AbstractDisordered solids exhibit intermittent avalanches when slowly driven by an external load. These avalanches are associated with plastic rearrangements of the atoms at the nanoscale that manifest as stress and energy drops in the loading curve. The complexity arising from their interactions through long‐range elastic fields and the disorder makes statistical approaches suitable for studying their behavior by considering yielding and fracture as a phase transition. To investigate the avalanche statistics, we perform nanoscale simulations using the athermal quasistatic deformation protocol to induce fracture to silica glass samples, which were simulated using the melting‐quenching technique. We identify and measure the avalanches and voids and investigate their evolution in the process of fracture. Our results confirm that the avalanches exhibit scale‐free power law statistics, indicative of a critical phenomenon.