Athermal Shear-Transformation-Zone Theory of Amorphous Plastic Deformation II: Analysis of Simulated Amorphous Silicon

TL;DR

This paper extends the athermal shear-transformation-zone (STZ) theory to analyze simulated amorphous silicon deformation, revealing insights into internal features and limitations of the theory when applied to rapid transient behaviors.

Contribution

It applies the STZ theory to numerical simulations of amorphous silicon, introducing a quasithermodynamic interpretation and addressing limitations in modeling rapid transients.

Findings

The theory can accurately predict simulation results when accounting for its limitations.

Internal features of amorphous silicon deformation challenge existing theoretical assumptions.

A quasithermodynamic framework explains the behavior of state variables during deformation.

Abstract

In the preceding paper, we developed an athermal shear-transformation-zone (STZ) theory of amorphous plasticity. Here we use this theory in an analysis of numerical simulations of plasticity in amorphous silicon by Demkowicz and Argon (DA). In addition to bulk mechanical properties, those authors observed internal features of their deforming system that challenge our theory in important ways. We propose a quasithermodynamic interpretation of their observations in which the effective disorder temperature, generated by mechanical deformation well below the glass temperature, governs the behavior of other state variables that fall in and out of equilibrium with it. Our analysis points to a limitation of either the step-strain procedure used by DA in their simulations, or the STZ theory in its ability to describe rapid transients in stress-strain curves, or perhaps to both. Once we allow for this limitation, we are able to bring our theoretical predictions into accurate agreement with the simulations.