Hidden spatiotemporal sequence in transition to shear band in amorphous solids

TL;DR

This paper uncovers the hidden spatiotemporal sequence leading to shear band formation in amorphous solids, revealing a transition from synchronized atomic motions to turbulent-like flow through theoretical analysis and statistical methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical protocol to decode atomic-scale events during shear banding, emphasizing the roles of shear, dilatation, and rotation zones and their transition dynamics.

Findings

Dilatation dominates initial plastic units.

Transition from stochastic activation to percolation follows power-law scaling.

Shear band formation involves a transition from synchronized to turbulent-like atomic motions.

Abstract

Shear banding is a fundamental non-equilibrium phenomenon in amorphous solids. Due to the intrinsic entangling of three local atomic motions: shear, dilatation and rotation, the precise physical process of shear band emergence is still an enigma. To unveil this mystery, we formulate for the first time a theoretical protocol covering both affine and non-affine components of deformation, to decode these highly entangled local atomic-scale events. In contrast to the broad concept of shear transformation zone, plastic behavior can be demonstrated comprehensively as the operative manipulation of more exact shear-dominated zones (SDZs), dilatation-dominated zones (DDZs) and rotation-dominated zones (RDZs). Their spatiotemporal evolution exhibits a novel transition from synchronous motion to separate distribution at the onset of shear band, which is in striking resemblance with the transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow in flow dynamics. The hidden mechanism is revealed with the help of extreme value theory (EVT) and percolation analysis. Analysis of EVT indicates dilatation is the dominant mode at the embryo of initial plastic units. The percolation analysis points towards the critical power-law scaling nature at the transition from stochastic activation to percolation of plastic regions. Then the comprehensive pictures of shear banding emergence are uncovered. Firstly, dilatation triggers initial shear and rotation in soft regions, leading to embryo of flow units, which is followed by the inhomogeneous turbulent-like pattern manifesting as the secondary activation of rotation in neighboring hard material. Such rotation activation contributes to further perturbation, and ultimately, leads to shear band formation. Our findings also reinforce that the discussion of plastic behavior in disordered materials must take into account both affine and non-affine component deformation.