IRG3: Mechanical Failure of Disordered Packings (2011-17)

IRG Leaders: Robert W. Carpick & Andrea J. Liu

Senior Investigators; Paulo E. Arratia, Douglas Durian, Dan Gianola, Jerry P. Gollub, Daeyeon Lee, Ju Li and Arjun G. Yodh

IRG-3 studies disordered packings of atoms, nanoparticles, colloids and grains with a goal to to understand how localized rearrangements organize under extreme load to form shear bands, and thereby to develop ways of predicting whether systems are about to fail, and to make new, tough materials by designing their vibrational properties. In condensed matter systems, disordered packings are pervasive. Yet our fundamental understanding of the mechanical response of disordered packings lags far behind that for crystalline ones. In particular, the mechanisms controlling mechanical instabilities that lead to failure are not understood. This scientific gap impedes applications of materials such as bulk metallic glasses, amorphous thin films, and nanoparticle assemblies. To gain new insights into the failure process, the onset of mechanical instabilities and failure will be studied in disordered systems across a range of constituent particle sizes, from packings of atoms to packings of macroscopic grains. This comparative approach brings together researchers from fields that are currently disparate. IRG-3 leverages this collective expertise to study shear band formation and the onset of mechanical failure at each scale: (1) atoms in carbon-based films and metallic glasses; (2) nanoparticles in layer-by-layer (LbL) assemblies; (3) colloidal glasses; and (4) granular media. The atomic and nanoparticle systems are chosen because their mechanical properties are important in applications. The colloidal and granular systems are chosen both for their materials importance and as model systems that are straightforward to visualize and that offer fine control over particle interaction and particle shape and size distributions. The IRG’s long range goal will be to use this knowledge to develop and test new design rules for fabricating novel materials with otherwise unattainable mechanical stability.

Highlights for IRG3

A new measure of structure in disordered materials
Douglas Durian and Andrea Liu
06/01/2017
Heterogeneity in the small-scale deformation behavior of disordered nanoparticle packings
J. A. Lefever, T. D. B. Jacobs, Q. Tam, J. L. Hor, Y.-R. Huang, D. Lee, & R. W. Carpick
06/01/2017
Identifying Structural Flow Defects in Disordered Solids Using Machine Learning Methods
D. J. Durian, E. Kaxiras (Harvard MRSEC), A. J. Liu (IRG-3)
06/01/2016
Universality of Microscopic Structure and Macroscopic Mechanical Response in Disordered Packings Across Length Scales
P. E. Arratia, R. W. Carpick, D. J. Durian, D. S. Gianola, D. Lee, A. J. Liu, R. Riggleman, A. G. Yodh (IRG-3)
06/01/2016
Understanding Plastic Deformation in Glasses from Single-Soft-Spot Dynamics
Andrea J. Liu (IRG 3), Robert A. Riggleman (Seed 3)
05/15/2015
Anisotropic Particles Toughen Disordered Packings
Andrea J. Liu and Daeyeon Lee (IRG3)
02/03/2014
Phonons & Soft Spots in Two-dimensional Glasses and Crystals
Andrea Liu and Arjun G. Yodh (IRG3)
02/03/2014
Temperature/Load Scaling in Gas-Fluidized Granular Packings
L. J. Daniels, T. K. Haxton, N. Xu, Andrea J. Liu and Douglas J. Durian
02/04/2013
Tunable Tensile Ductility in Metallic Glasses
D.J. Magagnosc, R. Erhbar, G. Kumar, M.R. He, J. Schroers, D.S. Gianola
02/04/2013
Just Say No to Cracks
Jacob H. Prosser, Teresa Brugarolas, Steven Lee, Adam J. Nolte, and Daeyeon Lee
09/24/2012
Soft Spots in Disordered Colloidal Packings
Andrea J. Liu and Arjun G. Yodh
02/24/2012