Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline copper under thermal load

The material properties of nanocrystallines are known to generally have a strong dependence on their nanoscale morphology, such as the grain size. The Hall-Petch effect states that the mechanical strength of nanocrystalline materials can vary substantially for a wide range of grain sizes: this is attributed to the competition between intergranular and intragranular deformations. We employed classical molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the morphology-dependent mechanical properties of nanocrystalline copper. The degradation of material properties under thermal load was investigated during fast strain rate deformation, particularly for the grain size. Our simulation results showed that the thermal load on the nanocrystalline materials alters the grain-size behavior of the mechanical properties. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.