54 research outputs found
The MOLDY short-range molecular dynamics package
We describe a parallelised version of the MOLDY molecular dynamics program.
This Fortran code is aimed at systems which may be described by short-range
potentials and specifically those which may be addressed with the embedded atom
method. This includes a wide range of transition metals and alloys. MOLDY
provides a range of options in terms of the molecular dynamics ensemble used
and the boundary conditions which may be applied. A number of standard
potentials are provided, and the modular structure of the code allows new
potentials to be added easily. The code is parallelised using OpenMP and can
therefore be run on shared memory systems, including modern multicore
processors. Particular attention is paid to the updates required in the main
force loop, where synchronisation is often required in OpenMP implementations
of molecular dynamics. We examine the performance of the parallel code in
detail and give some examples of applications to realistic problems, including
the dynamic compression of copper and carbon migration in an iron-carbon alloy
Two-band second moment model and an interatomic potential for caesium
A semi-empirical formalism is presented for deriving interatomic potentials
for materials such as caesium or cerium which exhibit volume collapse phase
transitions. It is based on the Finnis-Sinclair second moment tight binding
approach, but incorporates two independent bands on each atom. The potential is
cast in a form suitable for large-scale molecular dynamics, the computational
cost being the evaluation of short ranged pair potentials. Parameters for a
model potential for caesium are derived and tested
Efficacious calculation of Raman spectra in high pressure hydrogen
We present and evaluate an efficient method for simulating Raman spectra from
molecular dynamics (MD) calculations {\it without} defining normal modes. We
apply the method to high pressure hydrogen in the high-temperature "Phase IV":
a plastic crystal in which the conventional picture of fixed phonon eigenmodes
breaks down.
Projecting trajectories onto in-phase molecular stretches is shown to be many
orders of magnitude faster than polarisability calculations, allowing
statistical averaging at high-temperature.
The simulations are extended into metastable regimes and identify several
regimes associated with symmetry-breaking on different timescales, which are
shown to exhibit features in the Raman spectra at the current experimental
limit of resolvability. In this paper we have concentrated on the methodology,
a fuller description of the structure of Phase IV hydrogen is given in a
previous paperComment: EHPRG conference 2013, High Pressure Research: Volume 34, Issue 2,
201
First-principles thermodynamics of transition metals and alloys: W, NiAl, PdTi
We apply the pseudopotential density functional perturbation theory approach
along with the quasiharmonic approximation to calculate the thermal expansion
of tungsten and two important metallic alloys, NiAl and PdTi. We derive the
theory for anisotropic crystal structures and test the approximation that the
anisotropic effects of thermal expansion are equivalent to negative pressure -
this simplifies the calculation enormously for complex structures. Throughout,
we find excellent agreement with experimental results.Comment: 11 pages 9 fig
First-principles study of the structural energetics of PdTi and PtTi
The structural energetics of PdTi and PtTi have been studied using
first-principles density-functional theory with pseudopotentials and a
plane-wave basis. We predict that in both materials, the experimentally
reported orthorhombic phase will undergo a low-temperature phase
transition to a monoclinic ground state. Within a soft-mode framework,
we relate the structure to the cubic structure, observed at high
temperature, and the structure to via phonon modes strongly
coupled to strain. In contrast to NiTi, the structure is extremely close
to hcp. We draw on the analogy to the bcc-hcp transition to suggest likely
transition mechanisms in the present case.Comment: 8 pages 5 figure
quasiharmonic equations of state for dynamically-stabilized soft-mode materials
We introduce a method for treating soft modes within the analytical framework
of the quasiharmonic equation of state. The corresponding double-well
energy-displacement relation is fitted to a functional form that is harmonic in
both the low- and high-energy limits. Using density-functional calculations and
statistical physics, we apply the quasiharmonic methodology to solid periclase.
We predict the existence of a B1--B2 phase transition at high pressures and
temperatures
Ab initio and finite-temperature molecular dynamics studies of lattice resistance in tantalum
This manuscript explores the apparent discrepancy between experimental data
and theoretical calculations of the lattice resistance of bcc tantalum. We
present the first results for the temperature dependence of the Peierls stress
in this system and the first ab initio calculation of the zero-temperature
Peierls stress to employ periodic boundary conditions, which are those best
suited to the study of metallic systems at the electron-structure level. Our ab
initio value for the Peierls stress is over five times larger than current
extrapolations of experimental lattice resistance to zero-temperature. Although
we do find that the common techniques for such extrapolation indeed tend to
underestimate the zero-temperature limit, the amount of the underestimation
which we observe is only 10-20%, leaving open the possibility that mechanisms
other than the simple Peierls stress are important in controlling the process
of low temperature slip.Comment: 12 pages and 9 figure
Mechanism for radiation damage resistance in yttrium oxide dispersion strengthened steels
ODS steels based on yttrium oxide have been suggested as potential fusion
reactor wall materials due to their observed radiation resistance properties.
Presumably this radiation resistance can be related to the interaction of the
particle with vacancies,self-interstitial atoms (SIAs) and other radiation
damage debris. Density functional theory has been used to investigate this at
the atomic scale. Four distinct interfaces, some based on HRTEM observations,
between iron and yttrium oxide were investigated. It is been shown that the
YO-Fe interface acts as a strong trap with long-range attraction for
both interstitial and vacancy defects, allowing recombination without altering
the interface structure. The catalytic elimination of defects without change to
the microstructure explains the improved behaviour of ODS steels with respect
to radiation creep and swelling
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