Toughening Mechanism in Nanotwinned Boron Carbide: A Molecular Dynamics Study.

ABSTRACT: Boron carbide ceramics are potentially ideal candidates for lightweight bulletproof armor, but their use is currently limited by their low fracture toughness. Recent experimental results have shown that sintered samples with high twin densities exhibit high fracture toughness, but the toughening mechanism and associated crack propagation process of nanotwinned boron carbide at the atomic scale remain a mystery. Reported here are molecular dynamics simulations with a reactive force field potential to investigate how nanoscale twins affect the fracture toughness of boron carbide ceramics. The results show that the strength disparity on either side of a twin boundary is the fundamental reason for the toughening effect; the twin boundary impedes crack propagation only when the crack moves to a

SUBMITTER: Zhang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11435336 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature