Dynamicsofviscoplasticdeformationinamorphoussolids.PDFVIP

PHYSICAL REVIEW E VOLUME 57, NUMBER 6 JUNE 1998 Dynamics of viscoplastic deformation in amorphous solids M. L. Falk and J. S. Langer Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106 Received 11 December 1997 We propose a dynamical theory of low-temperature shear deformation in amorphous solids. Our analysis is based on molecular-dynamics simulations of a two-dimensional, two-component noncrystalline system. These numerical simulations reveal behavior typical of metallic glasses and other viscoplastic materials, specifically, reversible elastic deformation at small applied stresses, irreversible plastic deformation at larger stresses, a stress threshold above which unbounded plastic flow occurs, and a strong dependence of the state of the system on the history of past deformations. Microscopic observations suggest that a dynamically complete description of the macroscopic state of this deforming body requires specifying, in addition to stress and strain, certain average features of a population of two-state shear transformation zones. Our introduction of these state variables into the constitutive equations for this system is an extension of earlier models of creep in metallic glasses. In the treatment presented here, we specialize to temperatures far below the glass transition and postulate that irreversible motions are governed by local entropic fluctuations in the volumes of the transfor-