Constitutive relations for plasticity of amorphous carbon

Abstract We deform representative volume elements of amorphous carbon obtained from melt-quenches in molecular dynamics calculations using bond-order and machine learning interatomic potentials. A Drucker-Prager law with a zero-pressure flow stress of 41.2 GPa and an internal friction coefficient of 0.39 describes the deviatoric stress during flow as a function of pressure. We identify the mean coordination number as the order parameter describing this flow surface. However, a description of the dynamical relaxation of the quenched samples towards steady-state flow requires an additional order parameter. We suggest an intrinsic strain of the samples and present equations for its evolution. Our results provide insights into rehybridization and pressure dependence of friction between coated surfaces as well as routes towards the description of amorphous carbon in macroscale models of deformation.