scholarly journals Emergent solidity of amorphous materials as a consequence of mechanical self-organisation

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hua Tong ◽  
Shiladitya Sengupta ◽  
Hajime Tanaka

Abstract Amorphous solids have peculiar properties distinct from crystals. One of the most fundamental mysteries is the emergence of solidity in such nonequilibrium, disordered state without the protection by long-range translational order. A jammed system at zero temperature, although marginally stable, has solidity stemming from the space-spanning force network, which gives rise to the long-range stress correlation. Here, we show that such nonlocal correlation already appears at the nonequilibrium glass transition upon cooling. This is surprising since we also find that the system suffers from giant anharmonic fluctuations originated from the fractal-like potential energy landscape. We reveal that it is the percolation of the force-bearing network that allows long-range stress transmission even under such circumstance. Thus, the emergent solidity of amorphous materials is a consequence of nontrivial self-organisation of the disordered mechanical architecture. Our findings point to the significance of understanding amorphous solids and nonequilibrium glass transition from a mechanical perspective.

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (44) ◽  
pp. 30039-30047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Ruggiero ◽  
Marcin Krynski ◽  
Eric Ofosu Kissi ◽  
Juraj Sibik ◽  
Daniel Markl ◽  
...  

We show clear evidence for a theory proposing that the shape and structure of the PES is the fundamental factor underlying the dynamics at temperatures below the glass transition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Demmel ◽  
Louis Hennet ◽  
Noel Jakse

AbstractThe characteristic property of a liquid, discriminating it from a solid, is its fluidity, which can be expressed by a velocity field. The reaction of the velocity field on forces is enshrined in the transport parameter viscosity. In contrast, a solid reacts to forces elastically through a displacement field, the particles are trapped in their potential minimum. The flow in a liquid needs enough thermal energy to overcome the changing potential barriers, which is supported through a continuous rearrangement of surrounding particles. Cooling a liquid will decrease the fluidity of a particle and the mobility of the neighbouring particles, resulting in an increase of the viscosity until the system comes to an arrest. This process with a concomitant slowing down of collective particle rearrangements might already start deep inside the liquid state. The idea of the potential energy landscape provides an attractive picture for these dramatic changes. However, despite the appealing idea there is a scarcity of quantitative assessments, in particular, when it comes to experimental studies. Here we present results on a monatomic liquid metal through a combination of ab initio molecular dynamics, neutron spectroscopy and inelastic x-ray scattering. We investigated the collective dynamics of liquid aluminium to reveal the changes in dynamics when the high temperature liquid is cooled towards solidification. The results demonstrate the main signatures of the energy landscape picture, a reduction in the internal atomic structural energy, a transition to a stretched relaxation process and a deviation from the high-temperature Arrhenius behavior of the relaxation time. All changes occur in the same temperature range at about $$1.4 \cdot T_{melting}$$ 1.4 · T melting , which can be regarded as the temperature when the liquid aluminium enters the landscape influenced phase and enters a more viscous liquid state towards solidification. The similarity in dynamics with other monatomic liquid metals suggests a universal dynamic crossover above the melting point.


RSC Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (27) ◽  
pp. 15665-15669
Author(s):  
Shinya Oda ◽  
Shinji Kohara ◽  
Ryo Tsutsui ◽  
Mamoru Kasasaku ◽  
Hiromitsu Kozuka

Titanium-n-butoxide was hydrolyzed in the presence of benzoylacetone, and the resulting solution was concentrated and dried at 120 or 140 °C to obtain transparent amorphous materials.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Miguel Ojeda Mota ◽  
Ethen Thomas Lund ◽  
Sungwoo Sohn ◽  
David John Browne ◽  
Douglas Clayton Hofmann ◽  
...  

AbstractMost of the known bulk metallic glasses lack sufficient ductility or toughness when fabricated under conditions resulting in bulk glass formation. To address this major shortcoming, processing techniques to improve ductility that mechanically affect the glass have been developed, however it remains unclear for which metallic glass formers they work and by how much. Instead of manipulating the glass state, we show here that an applied strain rate can excite the liquid, and simultaneous cooling results in freezing of the excited liquid into a glass with a higher fictive temperature. Microscopically, straining causes the structure to dilate, hence “pulls” the structure energetically up the potential energy landscape. Upon further cooling, the resulting excited liquid freezes into an excited glass that exhibits enhanced ductility. We use Zr44Ti11Cu10Ni10Be25 as an example alloy to pull bulk metallic glasses through this excited liquid cooling method, which can lead to tripling of the bending ductility.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (26) ◽  
pp. 14987-14995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ratan Othayoth ◽  
George Thoms ◽  
Chen Li

Effective locomotion in nature happens by transitioning across multiple modes (e.g., walk, run, climb). Despite this, far more mechanistic understanding of terrestrial locomotion has been on how to generate and stabilize around near–steady-state movement in a single mode. We still know little about how locomotor transitions emerge from physical interaction with complex terrain. Consequently, robots largely rely on geometric maps to avoid obstacles, not traverse them. Recent studies revealed that locomotor transitions in complex three-dimensional (3D) terrain occur probabilistically via multiple pathways. Here, we show that an energy landscape approach elucidates the underlying physical principles. We discovered that locomotor transitions of animals and robots self-propelled through complex 3D terrain correspond to barrier-crossing transitions on a potential energy landscape. Locomotor modes are attracted to landscape basins separated by potential energy barriers. Kinetic energy fluctuation from oscillatory self-propulsion helps the system stochastically escape from one basin and reach another to make transitions. Escape is more likely toward lower barrier direction. These principles are surprisingly similar to those of near-equilibrium, microscopic systems. Analogous to free-energy landscapes for multipathway protein folding transitions, our energy landscape approach from first principles is the beginning of a statistical physics theory of multipathway locomotor transitions in complex terrain. This will not only help understand how the organization of animal behavior emerges from multiscale interactions between their neural and mechanical systems and the physical environment, but also guide robot design, control, and planning over the large, intractable locomotor-terrain parameter space to generate robust locomotor transitions through the real world.


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