We report on molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations of tensile loading of nano-crystalline Al modeled by an embedded-atom method (EAM) potential. Usage of two different sample preparation methods of the nano-crystalline material allows us to compare mechanical properties for different sample qualities. A Voronoi-constructed polycrystal exhibits nearly no pores and has different mechanical properti...

The abrasive wear of nanocrystalline Ni–W alloys with grain sizes of 5–105 nm has been studied using Taber abrasion testing. The wear resistance of the finest grain size specimen is found to be higher than would be predicted based on hardness alone. This deviation from Archard scaling is traced to mechanically-driven structural evolution, consisting of grain growth and grain boundary relaxation...

In the microcrystalline regime, the behavior of grain boundary-controlled electroceramics is well described by the “brick layer model” (BLM). In the nanocrystalline regime, however, grain boundary layers can represent a significant volume fraction of the overall microstructure and simple layer models are no longer valid. This work describes the development of a pixel-based finite-difference app...

Spark plasma sintered 3Y-TZP has been investigated with respect to hydrothermal ageing and grinding. The sintering was performed between the temperatures of 1,100 and 1,600 °C for a soaking time of 5 minutes and the resulting materials were obtained with grain sizes between 65 to 800 nm and relative densities between 88.5 to 98.8%. Experiments on hydrothermal ageing in water vapour at 131 °C, 2...

Moire interferometry is employed to study toughening in medium to large grain size nominally pure alumina. The fracture scale length, which is characterized by the grain size of the alumina, is systematically varied from 35 to 102 p,m. R curves are derived from bulk mode I compliance calculations for the differing grain sizes and from the near tip moire fringes. The level of material toughening...

We used molecular dynamics simulations with system sizes up to 100 million atoms to simulate plastic deformation of nanocrystalline copper. By varying the grain size between 5 and 50 nanometers, we show that the flow stress and thus the strength exhibit a maximum at a grain size of 10 to 15 nanometers. This maximum is because of a shift in the microscopic deformation mechanism from dislocation-...

Grain size is a major yield component in rice, and partly controlled by the sizes of the lemma and palea. Molecular mechanisms controlling the sizes of these organs largely remain unknown. In this study, we show that an antagonistic pair of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins is involved in determining rice grain length by controlling cell length in the lemma/palea. Overexpression of an atyp...

The knowledge of the fracture of bulk metallic materials developed in the last 50 years is mostly based on materials having grain sizes, d, in the range of some micrometres up to several hundred micrometres regarding the possibilities of classical metallurgical methods. Nowadays, novel techniques provide access to much smaller grain sizes, where severe plastic deformation (SPD) is one of the mo...