Rare events and disorder control the brittle yielding of well-annealed amorphous solids

11 Feb 2021  ·  Misaki Ozawa, Ludovic Berthier, Giulio Biroli, Gilles Tarjus ·

We use atomistic computer simulations to provide a microscopic description of the brittle failure of amorphous materials, and we assess the role of rare events and quenched disorder. We argue that brittle yielding originates at rare soft regions, similarly to Griffiths effects in disordered systems. We numerically demonstrate how localized plastic events in such soft regions trigger macroscopic failure via the propagation of a shear band. This physical picture, which no longer holds in poorly annealed ductile materials, allows us to discuss the role of finite size effects in brittle yielding and reinforces the similarities between yielding and other disorder-controlled nonequilibrium phase transitions.

PDF Abstract
No code implementations yet. Submit your code now

Categories


Soft Condensed Matter Disordered Systems and Neural Networks Materials Science