Title: Strain localization and fracture in metallic glasses

Author (Invited): Christopher Rycroft, Harvard University

Abstract:

Metallic glasses are a new type of alloy whose atoms have an amorphous arrangement in contrast to most metals. They have many favorable properties such as excellent wear resistance and high tensile strength, but can break in some circumstances, depending on their method of preparation. The talk will describe the development of a new numerical method for simulating these materials in the slow, quasi-static limit, based on a surprising connection to incompressible Newtonian fluids. Simulations will be used to explore the failure properties of these materials. By applying simple shear to heterogeneous samples, we explore and statistically characterize the dynamics of shear band growth.