scholarly journals The intimate relationship between structural relaxation and the energy landscape of monatomic liquid metals

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.

Author(s):  
S. G. Skublov ◽  
A. O. Krasotkina ◽  
A. B. Makeyev ◽  
O. L. Galankina ◽  
A. E. Melnik

Findings of the growth relationships between baddeleyite and zircon are rare, due to significant differences in the formation conditions of the minerals. A reaction replacement (partial to complete) of baddeleyite by zircon is possible during metamorphism accompanied by the interaction with high-Si fluids. The opposite situation, when zircon is replaced by baddeleyite, is extremely rare in the nature. Transformation of zircon from polymineral (compound) ore occurrence Ichetju (the Middle Timan) with the formation of microaggregates of baddeleyite, ratile and florencite has been found out. The size of the largest segregations of baddeleyite does not exceed 10 microns in diameter. Microaggregates are unevenly related to the rim of zircon with a thickness of 10 to 50 rfn, voids and cracks across the grain. Altered zircon rim (a mixture of newly formed minerals) is characterized by sharply increased composition of REE (especially LREE), Y, Nb, Ca, Ti. The composition of Th and U also increases. An overview of the experimental studies on the reaction between zircon and baddeleyite and single natural analogues allows to make a conclusion that the most likely mechanism of the transformation of zircon from ore occurrence Ichetju to baddeleyite (intergrowth with ratile and florencite) is due to the effect of interaction of primary zircon with high-temperature (higher than 500—600°C) alkaline fluids transporting HFSE (REE, Y, Nb, Ti). This is indirectly confirmed by the findings of zircon with anomalous high composition of Y and REE up to 100000 and 70000 ppm respectively.


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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