Rheological properties of Mg2SiO4 glass: A molecular dynamics study

We report an initial investigation of the rheology of Mg2SiO4 glass through classical molecular dynamics simulations. We performed simple shear tests at different temperatures (1–300 K), shear rates (108–1010 s–1) and pressures (0–10 GPa), from which we investigate the atomic rearrangements induced by loading. At low strain, atomic rearrangements, as detected by a non-affine displacement criteria, nucleate randomly in the glass. They then give rise to the formation of shear bands once the steady state of plastic flow is reached. We show that the flow stress follows a Herschel-Buckley law modified to account for the thermal activation of plastic events.