Graduation Year
2012
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Granting Department
Physics
Major Professor
Ivan I. Oleynik
Keywords
Carbon, Diamond, Graphene, Interatomic Potentials, Molecular Dynamics, Shock wave
Abstract
The goal of this PhD research project is to devise a robust interatomic potential for large scale molecular dynamics simulations of carbon materials under extreme conditions. This screened-environment dependent reactive empirical bond order potential (SED-REBO) is specifically designed to describe carbon materials under extreme compressive or tensile stresses. Based on the original REBO potential by Brenner and co workers, SED-REBO includes reparametrized pairwise interaction terms and a new screening term, which serves the role of a variable cutoff. The SED-REBO potential overcomes the deficiencies found with the most commonly used interatomic potentials for carbon: the appearance of artificial forces due to short cutoff that are known to create erroneous phenomena including ductile fracture of graphene and carbon nanotubes, which contradicts the experimentally observed brittle character of these materials. SED-REBO was applied in large scale molecular dynamics simulations of nanoindentation of graphene membranes and shock-induced compression of diamond. It was shown in the first computational experiment that graphene membranes exhibit a non-linear response to large magnitude of indentation, followed by a brittle fracture in agreement with experiments. The strength of graphene was determined using the kinetic theory of fracture, and the crack propagation mechanisms in the material were identified. It was found in large-scale shock simulations that SED-REBO improves the predictive power of MD simulations of carbon materials at extreme conditions.
Scholar Commons Citation
Perriot, Romain, "Development of Interatomic Potentials for Large Scale Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Carbon Materials under Extreme Conditions" (2012). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/4384