Nanoscale atomistic simulations of balistic impact on AlN ceramics coatings

• Grant number: 05/01887-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2005
• End date: September 30, 2007
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: José Pedro Rino
• Grantee: José Pedro Rino
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The main objective of this Project is to understand at atomic level, how the chemical bond determine the macroscopic properties of ceramics, such as plasticity, crack resistance, hardness, impact damage and to shock waves response and identify innovations which can improve the performance of these materials under extreme conditions, which are essential for structural applications of ceramics. The specific objective is determine, for the first time, the ballistic impact damage mechanism, in the low, medium and hypervelocity ranges in nanoscale AlN ceramics coatings. We will focus the study on the description of the structural stability, residual stresses, plasticity, shock wave propagation, fusion, vaporization, and structural transformation, during and after the impacts. The methodology will be based on molecular dynamics simulations on nanoscale systems with million atoms, running in parallel in a computer cluster using space time multi resolution algorithms. The effective interaction potential model for AlN is based on two and three body terms representing the steric repulsion interaction, charge-charge, charge-dipole, dipole-dipole, and covalent bond. The results will be analyzed using a custom made visualization package using techniques of data-mining and graph structure. (AU)