Temperature and pressure effect on tensile behavior of ice-Ih under low strain rate: A molecular dynamics study

The mechanical behavior of ice is complex, especially with the effect of temperature and pressure, which may significantly affect the safety in various engineering, where slow deformation of ice may bring more hidden, sudden, and severe damage. The mechanical behavior of ice-Ih under a low strain rate with the effect of temperature and confining pressure is still unclear, especially at the nanoscale. In this work, the tensile behavior of ice-Ih is investigated using Molecular Dynamics simulation method. The tensile test of ice-Ih was all performed along the y-direction ([010] crystal orientation) with a constant strain rate of 1 x 10(8) s(-1). The effect of temperature (73 to 270 K with 1 atm), as well as the confining pressure (1 atm to 200 MPa, combined with 100 K, 150 K, 200 K, and 250 K) on the tensile behavior of ice-Ih, was studied, respectively. The tensile stress-strain response under different temperatures was obtained, and the linear relationship of temperature and Young's modulus was consistent with other previous stud-ies. The tensile strength of ice-Ih decreased linearly with increasing temperature under low strain rate, which is quite different from the cases under high strain rate. The solid-solid phase transition was observed at 73 similar to 140 K, and the solid-liquid phase transition at 150 similar to 270 K, where more energy is required in completely solid-liquid phase transition at 250 similar to 270 K than solid-solid phase transition at 73 similar to 140 K. The evolution of total potential energy increment and structural failure with strain signifi-cantly depended on the phase transition of ice-Ih. Moreover, the ice-Ih is earlier and more likely to be melted at higher confining pressure. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.