Yielding behaviour of glasses under shear deformation at constant pressure

TL;DR

This study investigates how glasses yield under shear at constant pressure, revealing pressure-dependent shear band behavior and different dilation responses based on annealing, with qualitative similarities to constant-volume conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a computational approach to study glass yielding under constant-pressure shear, highlighting pressure effects on shear band formation and dilation behavior.

Findings

Shear stress scales with pressure in uniform shear.

Stable shear bands form with width increasing with pressure.

Dilation behavior varies with annealing quality.

Abstract

Computer simulations of yielding of glasses under shear have typically been performed under constant volume, strain controlled protocols. However, volumetric effects, such as the dilatancy associated with plastic rearrangements, and the observed reduction of density in shear bands, make it interesting to consider constant pressure shear protocols. We present a computational investigation on the nature of yielding of glasses under constant-pressure conditions, for different pressures. For uniform shear, the stress-strain curves at different pressures differ only by the stress scale. We find stable shear bands under cyclic shear whose steady-state width increases with an increase in external pressure, with density within shear bands being lower compared to the average values reached. Cyclically sheared well annealed glasses yield with a discontinuous dilation at the yield point, whereas the poorly annealed glasses undergo compaction before yielding accompanied by dilation. The external pressure influences the quantitative mechanical response of the glasses, but the qualitative behaviour is similar at different pressures, and remains the same as that of yielding at the constant-volume strain-controlled conditions. We discuss directions along with further investigations may be pursued, based on the results presented.