Modeling of friction-induced deformation and microstructures.

Frictional contact results in surface and subsurface damage that could influence the performance, aging, and reliability of moving mechanical assemblies. Changes in surface roughness, hardness, grain size and texture often occur during the initial run-in period, resulting in the evolution of subsurface layers with characteristic microstructural features that are different from those of the bulk. The objective of this LDRD funded research was to model friction-induced microstructures. In order to accomplish this objective, novel experimental techniques were developed to make friction measurements on single crystal surfaces along specific crystallographic surfaces. Focused ion beam techniques were used to prepare cross-sections of wear scars, and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and TEM to understand the deformation, orientation changes, and recrystallization that are associated with sliding wear. The extent of subsurface deformation and the coefficient of friction were strongly dependent on the crystal orientation. These experimental observations and insights were used to develop and validate phenomenological models. A phenomenological model was developed to elucidate the relationships between deformation, microstructure formation, and friction during wear. The contact mechanics problem was described by well-known mathematical solutions for the stresses during sliding friction. Crystal plasticity theory was used to describe the evolution of dislocation content in the worn material, which in turn provided an estimate of the characteristic microstructural feature size as a function of the imposed strain. An analysis of grain boundary sliding in ultra-fine-grained material provided a mechanism for lubrication, and model predictions of the contribution of grain boundary sliding (relative to plastic deformation) to lubrication were in good qualitative agreement with experimental evidence. A nanomechanics-based approach has been developed for characterizing the mechanical response of wear surfaces. Coatings are often required to mitigate friction and wear. Amongst other factors, plastic deformation of the substrate determines the coating-substrate interface reliability. Finite element modeling has been applied to predict the plastic deformation for the specific case of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coated Ni alloy substrates

Nanomechanics of hard films on compliant substrates.

Development of flexible thin film systems for biomedical, homeland security and environmental sensing applications has increased dramatically in recent years [1,2,3,4]. These systems typically combine traditional semiconductor technology with new flexible substrates, allowing for both the high electron mobility of semiconductors and the flexibility of polymers. The devices have the ability to be easily integrated into components and show promise for advanced design concepts, ranging from innovative microelectronics to MEMS and NEMS devices. These devices often contain layers of thin polymer, ceramic and metallic films where differing properties can lead to large residual stresses [5]. As long as the films remain substrate-bonded, they may deform far beyond their freestanding counterpart. Once debonded, substrate constraint disappears leading to film failure where compressive stresses can lead to wrinkling, delamination, and buckling [6,7,8] while tensile stresses can lead to film fracture and decohesion [9,10,11]. In all cases, performance depends on film adhesion. Experimentally it is difficult to measure adhesion. It is often studied using tape [12], pull off [13,14,15], and peel tests [16,17]. More recent techniques for measuring adhesion include scratch testing [18,19,20,21], four point bending [22,23,24], indentation [25,26,27], spontaneous blisters [28,29] and stressed overlayers [7,26,30,31,32,33]. Nevertheless, sample design and test techniques must be tailored for each system. There is a large body of elastic thin film fracture and elastic contact mechanics solutions for elastic films on rigid substrates in the published literature [5,7,34,35,36]. More recent work has extended these solutions to films on compliant substrates and show that increasing compliance markedly changes fracture energies compared with rigid elastic solution results [37,38]. However, the introduction of inelastic substrate response significantly complicates the problem [10,39,40]. As a result, our understanding of the critical relationship between adhesion, properties, and fracture for hard films on compliant substrates is limited. To address this issue, we integrated nanomechanical testing and mechanics-based modeling in a program to define the critical relationship between deformation and fracture of nanoscale films on compliant substrates. The approach involved designing model film systems and employing nano-scale experimental characterization techniques to isolate effects of compliance, viscoelasticity, and plasticity on deformation and fracture of thin hard films on substrates that spanned more than two orders of compliance magnitude exhibit different interface structures, have different adhesion strengths, and function differently under stress. The results of this work are described in six chapters. Chapter 1 provides the motivation for this work. Chapter 2 presents experimental results covering film system design, sample preparation, indentation response, and fracture including discussion on the effects of substrate compliance on fracture energies and buckle formation from existing models. Chapter 3 describes the use of analytical and finite element simulations to define the role of substrate compliance and film geometry on the indentation response of thin hard films on compliant substrates. Chapter 4 describes the development and application of cohesive zone model based finite element simulations to determine how substrate compliance affects debond growth. Chapter 5 describes the use of molecular dynamics simulations to define the effects of substrate compliance on interfacial fracture of thin hard tungsten films on silicon substrates. Chapter 6 describes the Workshops sponsored through this program to advance understanding of material and system behavior