An atomistic study of brittle fracture: Toward explicit failure criteria from atomistic modeling

Atomistic techniques are used to study brittle fracture under opening mode and mixed mode loading conditions. The influence of the discreteness of the lattice and of the lattice-trapping effect on crack propagation is studied using an embedded atom potential for nickel to describe the crack tip. The recently developed FEAt (Finite Element-Atomistic) coupling scheme provides the atomistic core region with realistic boundary conditions. Several crystallographically distinct crack-tip configurations are studied and commonly reveal that brittle cracks under general mixed mode loading situations follow an energy criterion (G-criterion) rather than an opening-stress criterion (K_l-criterion). However, if there are two competing failure modes, they seem to unload each other, which leads to an increase in lattice trapping. Blunted crack tips are studied in the last part of the paper and are compared to the atomically sharp cracks. Depending on the shape of the blunted crack tip, the observed failure modes differ significantly and can drastically disagree with what one would anticipate from a continuum mechanical analysis.