Glass stability changes the nature of yielding under oscillatory shear

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to explore how the stability of glasses influences their yielding behavior under oscillatory shear, revealing a transition from ductile to brittle failure as stability increases.

Contribution

It demonstrates a qualitative change in yielding behavior related to glass stability, using swap Monte Carlo to span a wide range of stabilities.

Findings

Yielding transitions from ductile to brittle with increased stability

Glass stability significantly affects mechanical response under shear

Disentangles effects of mechanical and thermal annealing

Abstract

We perform molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of a glass preparation on its yielding transition under oscillatory shear. We use swap Monte Carlo to investigate a broad range of glass stabilities from poorly annealed to highly stable systems. We observe a qualitative change in the nature of yielding, which evolves from ductile to brittle as glass stability increases. Our results disentangle the relative role of mechanical and thermal annealing on the mechanical properties of amorphous solids, which is relevant for various experimental situations from the rheology of soft materials to fatigue failure in metallic glasses.