Atomic simulation of cracks shows how nanomaterials fail.(TESTING CHARACTERIZATION)

Advanced Materials & Processes,  March, 2006  

Tags: crack, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, theory

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An atom-by-atom simulation of cracks forming and spreading that may help explain how materials fail in nanoscale devices, airplanes, and even in the Earth itself during a quake has reportedly been developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. "Classical theories of crack dynamics are valid only in a small range of material behavior," says Markus J.

Buehler, principal investigator in the Atomistic Mechanics Modeling Group in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "Our results represent a major breakthrough in understanding ...

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