Atomistic study of internal stress effect on scratching behavior in titanium single crystal

The internal stress effect on the scratching behavior in titanium single crystal is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. It is introduced by applying the compressive/tensile pre-strain in this work. The friction force in the model with compressive pre-strain is higher than that with tensile pre-strain, which is related to the atomistic spacing and the distribution of pile-up. The dislocation mechanism is systematically illustrated that three types of dislocations of edge dislocation loop, prism edge dislocation and screw dislocation dominate the plastic deformation. The coupling of dislocation loop and screw dislocation in the model with tensile pre-strain causes much more defects to remain in the matrix. However, when the model is applied by small compressive pre-strain, the dislocations left in the matrix are obviously decreased, reducing the internal crystal damage. Overall, the compressive/tensile internal stress has a distinguishing effect on the scratching behavior, which can be used for altering the friction and wear property of titanium.