Mechanical Failure of a Small and Confined Solid

TL;DR

This study investigates how a confined triangular solid strip fails under strain, revealing that failure occurs via a solid-smectic transition and that thinner strips are stronger, with critical strain inversely related to width.

Contribution

It demonstrates, through simulations and density functional theory, that a solid-smectic transition mediates failure and that critical strain depends inversely on channel width.

Findings

Failure occurs via nucleation of smectic-like bands.

Thinner strips exhibit higher critical strain.

Solid-smectic transition mediates the failure process.

Abstract

Starting from a commensurate triangular thin solid strip, confined within two hard structureless walls, a stretch along its length introduces a rectangular distortion. Beyond a critical strain the solid fails through nucleation of "smectic"-like bands. We show using computer simulations and simple density functional based arguments, how a solid-smectic transition mediates the failure. Further, we show that the critical strain introducing failure is {\em inversely} proportional to the channel width i.e. thinner strips are stronger!