Molecular dynamics modeling and simulation of void growth in two dimensions

The mechanisms of growth of a circular void by plastic deformation were studied by means of molecular dynamics in two dimensions (2D). While previous molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in three dimensions (3D) have been limited to small voids (up to ≈10 nm in radius), this strategy allows us to study the behavior of voids of up to 100 nm in radius. MD simulations showed that plastic deformation was triggered by the nucleation of dislocations at the atomic steps of the void surface in the whole range of void sizes studied. The yield stress, defined as stress necessary to nucleate stable dislocations, decreased with temperature, but the void growth rate was not very sensitive to this parameter. Simulations under uniaxial tension, uniaxial deformation and biaxial deformation showed that the void growth rate increased very rapidly with multiaxiality but it did not depend on the initial void radius. These results were compared with previous 3D MD and 2D dislocation dynamics simulations to establish a map of mechanisms and size effects for plastic void growth in crystalline solids.