Influence of crystallographic orientations and nanovoid on the plastic mechanism and damage behavior of single-crystal tungsten under shock

ZY Li and WS Liu and YZ Ma and CP Liang, JOURNAL OF MATERIALS RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY-JMR&T, 35, 714-725 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmrt.2025.01.040

In this work, we investigated the shock response of single-crystal tungsten with pre-existing voids using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, considering four crystallographic orientations (100, 110, 111, and 112). The results reveal that the presence of nanovoids significantly reduces the spall strength of tungsten. For perfect single crystals, the spall strength is highest along 111 (47.65 GPa) and 112 (42.89 GPa), while 110 exhibits the lowest value (32.79 GPa). However, with a void radius of 1.644 nm, the spall strength of 111 and 112 decreases sharply to 24.14 GPa and 20.16 GPa, respectively. In contrast, the spall strength reduction is minimal for 100 and 110. Various plastic deformation mechanisms, such as dislocation emission, twinning, and prismatic loop formation, were observed during shock compression, with distinct differences between perfect and void-containing samples. These mechanisms and the associated microstructural evolution explain the anisotropic spallation behavior and provide insights into the rapid decline in spall strength for specific orientations.

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