Fracture Toughness of Silicate Glasses: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the fracture toughness of silicate glasses, revealing that their ductility varies with composition and providing realistic estimates of fracture energy.

Contribution

It demonstrates that molecular dynamics simulations can accurately predict fracture toughness and uncovers composition-dependent ductility in silicate glasses.

Findings

Simulations provide realistic fracture energy and toughness values.

Silicate glasses exhibit varying ductility based on composition.

Methodology confirms atomic-scale fracture mechanisms.

Abstract

Understanding, predicting and eventually improving the resistance to fracture of silicate materials is of primary importance to design new glasses that would be tougher, while retaining their transparency. However, the atomic mechanism of the fracture in amorphous silicate materials is still a topic of debate. In particular, there is some controversy about the existence of ductility at the nano-scale during the crack propagation. Here, we present simulations of the fracture of three archetypical silicate glasses using molecular dynamics. We show that the methodology that is used provide realistic values of fracture energy and toughness. In addition, the simulations clearly suggest that silicate glasses can show different degrees of ductility, depending on their composition.