Authors: Yong Gan J K Chen
Publish Date: 2008/11/22
Volume: 95, Issue: 2, Pages: 357-362
Abstract
Temperature and extremelyhigh strain rate effects on mechanical properties of differentsize gold nanofilms are investigated using molecular dynamics simulation The numerical results clearly show a temperature softening effect on the material strength and Young’s modulus and demonstrate a critical film thickness that characterizes a transition from “smaller is softer” to “smaller is stronger” It is also found that a higher strain rate yields a higher strength whereas the modulus is much less sensitive to the loading rate In addition the Young’s modulus and strength of nanofilms studied are approximately 50–60 smaller and 50–90 times higher than those of bulk gold respectively This suggests that the use of the mechanical properties of a bulk material in a continuumbased approach might be inadequate for the accurate prediction of the thermomechanical response for gold nanofilms caused by ultrashortpulsed laser heating
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