In silico investigation of anisotropy in the mechanism of plastic activities during nanoscratch of nickel: a molecular dynamics study

VK Majeti and DK Dubey and J Jain, MOLECULAR SIMULATION, 51, 242-256 (2025).

DOI: 10.1080/08927022.2025.2472832

The present study emphasises the anisotropy in the dislocation reaction- based formation mechanism of prismatic dislocation loop (PDL) and stacking fault tetrahedron (SFT) during nanoscratch on single crystalline Nickel. The molecular dynamics simulations are performed on (100), (111), and (110) crystallographic planes in 001, $\bar110$110, and $\bar110$110 scratch directions, respectively. In the (100) 001 case, the dislocations gliding on planes ($\bar11\bar1$111) and (111) participated in the formation of PDL during the nanoscratch. In (111) $\bar110$110 case, two PDLs are formed during nanoindentation, with the dislocations gliding on ($\bar11\bar1$111) and ($\bar1\bar11$111) planes for 1st PDL, (111) and ($\bar1\bar11$111) planes for 2nd PDL. In (110) $\bar110$110 case, dislocations gliding on ($\bar11\bar1$111) and ($1\bar1\bar1$111) planes formed a PDL during nanoindentation. However, the PDLs formed during nanoindentation are absorbed into the dislocation field during nanoscratch. In all cases of the study, the formation mechanism of SFT involves growth oscillation phenomena of dislocations along with the formation of Hirth dislocations. However, the series of dislocations reactions in the formation of SFT differs in each case. Overall, this study offers insights into the mechanisms of plastic activities during the nanoscratch of Ni.

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