COMPLAS 2023

Fracture of Glassy Thermoplastics Based on Multiscale Simulations Across Molecular and Continuum Scales

  • Zhao, Wuyang (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürn)
  • Pfaller, Sebastian (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürn)

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The fracture of materials originates from the behavior at atomistic or molecular scales. Specifically, for polymers, the fracture could be associated with cavitation and the forming of micro plastic zone, crazes, shear bands, etc. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide insights into understanding the fracture mechanisms at the microscopic level. However, the material sample modeled in MD simulations is limited to a small spatial size due to prohibitive computational costs. Furthermore, it is hard to address macroscopic boundary conditions in an MD system with appropriate deformation and tractions near the crack tip. To solve these problems, MD simulations can be coupled with continuum mechanics by embedding an MD domain into a region with a continuum description. The Capriccio method [1,2] is designed for concurrent multiscale simulations of amorphous polymers by coupling a continuum and an MD domain. In this contribution, we model the fracture behavior of glassy polymers with the Capriccio method using coarse-grained polystyrene as sample material. Moreover, we investigate the fracture of glassy polymers under various loading conditions and attempt to address its micromechanisms. [1] S. Pfaller, M. Rahimi, G. Possart, P. Steinmann, F. M¨uller-Plathe. and M.C. B¨ohm. An Arlequin-based method to couple molecular dynamics and finite element simulations of amorphous polymers and nanocomposites. Comput. Methods. Appl. Mech. Eng. (2013) 260: 109–129. [2] W. Zhao, P. Steinmann, S. Pfaller. A particle-continuum coupling method for multiscale simulations of viscoelastic–viscoplastic amorphous glassy polymers. Int. J. Numer. Methods. Eng. (2021) 122: 7431–7451.