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Updated: Nov 10, 2025

Determining the Mechanical Strength of Ultra-Fine-Grained Metals
Published on: November 22, 2021
Fracture Toughness Estimation of Single-Crystal Aluminum at Nanoscale
Wilmer Velilla-Díaz1, Luis Ricardo1, Argemiro Palencia1
1Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Barranquilla 080020, Colombia.
Abstract:
In this publication, molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the fracture behavior of single-crystal aluminum. The stress intensity factor is estimated by means of four different methods, the accuracy is assessed for each approach and the fracture toughness is estimated. The proposed methodology is also applied to estimate the fracture toughness for graphene and diamond using published data from other scientific articles. The obtained fracture toughness for the single-crystal aluminum is compared with other nanomaterials that have similar microstructures. Dislocation emission during the fracture simulation of the cracked nano-crystal of aluminum is analyzed to study the fracture behavior. Brittle fracture behavior is the predominant failure mode for the nanomaterials studied in this research.
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