Creep response of athermal amorphous solids under imposed shear stress

TL;DR

This study investigates the creep behavior of athermal amorphous solids under shear stress using molecular dynamics simulations, revealing how initial state history influences deformation and flow near the yield threshold.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the microscopic dynamics and the role of annealing history in creep response of amorphous solids under shear stress.

Findings

Creep response depends on the initial annealing history.

Microscopic dynamics show distinct signatures near the yield threshold.

Spatiotemporal patterns characterize arrest and flow behaviors.

Abstract

Yield stress materials fail when the imposed stress crosses a critical threshold. A well-known dynamical response to the applied stress is the phenomenon of creep where the cumulative deformation grows sublinearly with time, prior to failure or arrest. Using extensive molecular dynamics simulations, we study such response for a model amorphous system, in the athermal limit, and probe how the annealing history of the initial state determines the observed behaviour to an applied shear stress. Further, we analyze the microscopic dynamics in the vicinity of the yield threshold, using large systems, and characterize the spatiotemporal signatures towards arrest or flow, at different scales.