| Nanocrystalline metals show pecularities in their deformation behavior due to the large density of grain boundaries, which act as sources and sinks for dislocations and allow for grain boundary sliding as well as rotation. Although molecular dynamics simulations have significantly contributed to an understanding of atomistic mechanisms in these materials, in the past, simulation results have been questioned since the virtual strain rates exceed those in experiments by several orders of magnitudes and lead to high local stresses. In this contribution I will address these issues and show how a coupled MD/MC scheme that allows to equilibrate the atomic distribution in alloys can even be used to mimic strain rate effects, thus providing new insights into the interplay of atomic scale processes. |
|