Numerical tools for atomistic simulations.

The final report for a Laboratory Directed Research and Development project entitled 'Parallel Atomistic Computing for Failure Analysis of Micromachines' is presented. In this project, atomistic algorithms for parallel computers were developed to assist in quantification of microstructure-property relations related to weapon micro-components. With these and other serial computing tools, we are performing atomistic simulations of various sizes, geometries, materials, and boundary conditions. These tools provide the capability to handle the different size-scale effects required to predict failure. Nonlocal continuum models have been proposed to address this problem; however, they are phenomenological in nature and are difficult to validate for micro-scale components. Our goal is to separately quantify damage nucleation, growth, and coalescence mechanisms to provide a basis for macro-scale continuum models that will be used for micromachine design. Because micro-component experiments are difficult, a systematic computational study that employs Monte Carlo methods, molecular statics, and molecular dynamics (EAM and MEAM) simulations to compute continuum quantities will provide mechanism-property relations associated with the following parameters: specimen size, number of grains, crystal orientation, strain rates, temperature, defect nearest neighbor distance, void/crack size, chemical state, and stress state. This study will quantify sizescale effects from nanometers to microns in terms of damage progression and thus potentially allow for optimized micro-machine designs that are more reliable and have higher fidelity in terms of strength. In order to accomplish this task, several atomistic methods needed to be developed and evaluated to cover the range of defects, strain rates, temperatures, and sizes that a material may see in micro-machines. Therefore we are providing a complete set of tools for large scale atomistic simulations that include pre-processing of realistic material configurations, processing under different environments, and post-processing with appropriate continuum quantities. By running simulations with these tools, we are able to determine size scale effects that correlate microstructure and defect configurations with mechanical properties of materials