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A combined dislocation–cohesive zone model for fracture in nanocrystalline materials

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Abstract

A combined dislocation–cohesive zone model was proposed to describe the fracture toughness of nanocrystalline (nc) materials. In the framework of the model, cohesive stress near crack tip initiates edge dislocations, which move to the opposite grain boundaries. The emitted dislocations provide a shielding effect of the crack. The dependence of both the maximum number of dislocations, emitted by a crack, and the critical stress intensity factor on grain size d (ranging from 20 to100 nm) for Cu was calculated. The calculated results show that (i) nc materials have low fracture toughness, (ii) the critical stress intensity factor decreases with decreased grain size, and (iii) the grain size effect is not high; for instance, increasing the grain size from 20 to 100 nm increases the value of critical stress intensity factor only by 0.035 MPa/m1/2.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful for the funding of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10502025 and 10872087), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK2007528), Key Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (211061), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province, and Research and Innovation Projects Foundation of University Postgraduate of Jiangsu Province (CX10B_167Z).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, 210009, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Yingguang Liu

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, 210009, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Jianqiu Zhou

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Jianqiu Zhou

  4. High-Tech Research Institute & State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, 210009, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Tongde Shen

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  1. Yingguang Liu
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Correspondence to Jianqiu Zhou.

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Liu, Y., Zhou, J. & Shen, T. A combined dislocation–cohesive zone model for fracture in nanocrystalline materials. Journal of Materials Research 27, 694–700 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.442

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