Scaling of relaxation and excess entropy in plastically deformed amorphous solids Article Swipe
YOU?
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· 2020
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2000698117
· OA: W3028244327
Significance When stressed sufficiently, many solids plastically deform and flow. This plastic deformation induces irreversible structural changes, which are sometimes used in practice to manipulate microstructure of materials to achieve desired mechanical properties. Unfortunately, our limited fundamental understanding of the interdependence of plastic flow and microstructure represents a design barrier for improvement of strength, hardness, and ductility in amorphous solids, where constituent particles are haphazardly arranged. Here, we study plastic flow and its influence on the microstructure of disordered colloidal solids. Video images, with single-particle resolution, reveal connections between bulk mechanical response and microstructure during plastic deformation. Specifically, structural relaxation induced by plastic flow depends on strain rate at earlier times and predicts microscopic structural features at later times.
