Study on the atomic scale deformation mechanism of the h-BN coating nickel matrix composites

In this paper, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are applied to study the contact mechanical behavior of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) coating/Ni matrix composites during nanoindentation, revealing the material deformation mechanism. A systematic study is carried out on the load-depth curve, temperature response curve, defect morphology, and dislocation density in indentation. The results show that the presence of h-BN coating increases the actual loading area of the matrix, effectively reduces the contact stress between the tip of the indenter and the specimen, and also induces the generation of high-density Shockley dislocations, which increases the dislocation entanglement and leads to the localized hardening of the composites, thus reducing the matrix damage. During the loading process, the temperature of the specimen before the destruction of the h-BN coating is significantly lower than that after the destruction, indicating that the coating tends to block the transfer of temperature to the interior of the specimen, preventing the occurrence of temperature-induced tissue phase changes inside the specimen, and providing good protection for the interior of the specimen.