Speaker
Description
Accurate prediction of fracture mechanical quantities based on the atomistic and molecular structure of matter has the capability to provide a deeper understanding of failure processes and can open new approaches to material design. However, many challenges exist towards this ambitious goal particularly for amorphous materials – mostly rooted in the tremendous difference in length and time scales involved when linking atomistic simulations to continuum approaches, which are required to mimic typical fracture mechanical setups.
This contribution gives an overview of the Capriccio method as a multiscale domain-decomposition strategy that employs the fine-scale, in the sense of a discrete atomistic or molecular description, in the vicinity of crack tips as the regions of a specimen exposed to particularly high loads. Based on this, we present our recent findings in the context of quantifying stress intensity factors of inorganic glasses together with a discussion of appropriate measures to indicate the onset of crack propagation. Furthermore, we discuss peculiarities arising from the chosen setups and their impact on our findings.
