Shijo Nagao

Precision of nanoindentation protocols for measurement of viscoelasticity in cortical and trabecular bone

Nanoindentation has recently gained attention as a characterization technique for mechanical properties of biological tissues, such as bone, on the sub-micron level. However, optimal methods to characterize viscoelastic properties of bones are yet to be established. This study aimed to compare the time-dependent viscoelastic properties of bone tissue obtained with different nanoindentation methods. Bovine cortical and trabecular bone samples (n=8) from the distal femur and proximal tibia were dehydrated, embedded and polished. The material properties determined using nanoindentation were hardness and reduced modulus, as well as time-dependent parameters based on creep, loading-rate, dissipated energy and semi-dynamic testing under load control. Each loading protocol was repeated 160 times and the reproducibility was assessed based on the coefficient of variation (CV). Additionally, three well-characterized polymers were tested and CV values were calculated for reference. The employed methods were able to characterize time-dependent viscoelastic properties of bone. However, their reproducibility varied highly (CV 9-40%). The creep constant increased with increasing dwell time. The reproducibility was best with a 30s creep period (CV 18%). The dissipated energy was stable after three repeated load cycles, and the reproducibility improved with each cycle (CV 23%). The viscoelastic properties determined with semi-dynamic test increased with increase in frequency. These measurements were most reproducible at high frequencies (CV 9-10%). Our results indicate that several methods are feasible for the determination of viscoelastic properties of bone material. The high frequency semi-dynamic test showed the highest precision within the tested nanoindentation protocols.

Role of Five-fold Twin Boundary on the Enhanced Mechanical Properties of fcc Fe Nanowires

The role of 5-fold twin boundary on the structural and mechanical properties of fcc Fe nanowire under tension is explored by classical molecular dynamics. Twin-stabilized fcc nanowire with various diameters (6-24 nm) are examined by tension tests at several temperatures ranging from 0.01 to 1100 K. Significant increase in the Youngs modulus of the smaller nanowires is revealed to originate from the central area of quinquefoliolate-like stress-distribution over the 5-fold twin, rather than from the surface tension that is often considered as the main source of such size-effects found in nanostructures. Because of the excess compressive stress caused by crossing twin-boundaries, the atoms in the center behave stiffer than those in bulk and even expand laterally under axial tension, providing locally negative Poissons ratio. The yield strength of nanowire is also enhanced by the twin boundary that suppresses dislocation nucleation within a fcc twin-domain; therefore, the plasticity of nanowire is initiated by strain-induced fcc→bcc phase transformation that destroys the twin structure. After the yield, the nucleated bcc phase immediately spreads to the entire area, and forms a multigrain structure to realize ductile deformation followed by necking. As temperature elevated close to the critical temperature between bcc and fcc phases, the increased stability of fcc phase competes with the phase transformation under tension, and hence dislocation nucleations in fcc phase are observed exclusively at the highest temperature in our study.

Thermomechanical properties dependence on chain length in bulk polyethylene: Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations

Mechanical and thermodynamical properties of bulk polyethylene have been scrutinized using coarse-grained (CG) molecular dynamics simulations. Entangled but cross-link-free polymer clusters are generated by the semicrystalline lattice method for a wide range chain length of alkane modeled by CG beads, and tested under compressive and tensile stress with various temperature and strain rates. It has been found that the specific volume and volumetric thermal expansion coefficient decrease with the increase of chain length, where the specific volume is a linear function of the bond number to all bead number ratios, while the thermal expansion coefficient is a linear rational function of the ratio. Glass-transition temperature, however, does not seem to be sensitive to chain length. Yield stress under tension and compression increases with the increase of the bond number to all bead number ratio and strain rate as well as with decreasing temperature. The correlation found between chain length and these physical parameters suggests that the ratio dominates the mechanical properties of the present CG-modeled linear polymer material.

Nanohinge‐Induced Plasticity of Helical Carbon Nanotubes

Helical carbon nanotubes with intentionally incorporated non-hexagonal defects have unexpectedly high toughness and plasticity, in addition to the well-recognized extreme elasticity. The obtained toughness approaches 5000 J g(-1) with decreasing spring radius. The high toughness originates from the plastic nanohinge formation as a result of distributed partial fractures. A strong spring size effect, contradictory to the continuum solution, is precisely described by an atomistic bond-breaking model.

Achieving consistency of Young’s modulus determination from nanoscale deformation of low-k films

The present study proposes a method for determining indenter shape-independent Young’s moduli of thin low-k films from a composite film/substrate nanoindentation response. In contrast to the previous models utilizing empirical fitting parameters, the present authors introduce substrate effect factor determined by the elastic film/substrate mismatch, film thickness, and indenter angle. The new method overcomes several deficiencies of the previous models. Such deficiencies include inability to explain/account for the observed difference in the scale of substrate effect sampled by Berkovich and cube corner indenters. The present model provides consistent Young’s moduli of 5.8–6.1 GPa for both types of indenters.

Size-dependent mechanical behavior of nanoscale polymer particles through coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation

Anisotropic conductive adhesives (ACAs) are promising materials used for producing ultra-thin liquid-crystal displays. Because the mechanical response of polymer particles can have a significant impact in the performance of ACAs, understanding of this apparent size effect is of fundamental importance in the electronics industry. The objective of this research is to use a coarse-grained molecular dynamics model to verify and gain physical insight into the observed size dependence effect in polymer particles. In agreement with experimental studies, the results of this study clearly indicate that there is a strong size effect in spherical polymer particles with diameters approaching the nanometer length scale. The results of the simulations also clearly indicate that the source for the increases in modulus is the increase in relative surface energy for decreasing particle sizes. Finally, the actual contact conditions at the surface of the polymer nanoparticles are shown to be similar to those predicted using Hertz and perfectly plastic contact theory. As ACA thicknesses are reduced in response to reductions in polymer particle size, it is expected that the overall compressive stiffness of the ACA will increase, thus influencing the manufacturing process.

Mystery of current spike: Nanoscale plasticity revisited

Abstract This paper addresses the current spike (CS) phenomenon revealed by in situ measurements of electrical response during nanoindentation. The CS is defined as the sharp initial increase in electric current through the highly compressed GaAs/metallic indenter nanocontact and its decay to zero upon termination of elastic deformation. The clarification of this new effect is justified by our ab initio analysis of the metal/semiconductor contact. The obtained results reveal the common origin of the simultaneous mechanical and electrical responses, these being the pop-in event and the CS respectively. This leads to a substantial revision of our understanding of the onset of nanoscale plasticity. Our results support the hypothesis, deduced from atomistic simulations, of the non-dislocation incipient plasticity of GaAs. They are also in accord with the fresh idea of nanoscale deconfinement driven deformation of compressed silicon nanospheres.

Strain Rate Controlled Nanoindentation Examination and Incipient Plasticity in Bulk GaN Crystal

Yield shear stress dependence on dislocation density and crystal orientation was studied in bulk GaN crystals by nanoindentation examination. The yield shear stress decreased with increasing dislocation density, and it decreased with decreasing nanoindentation strain-rate. It reached and coincided at 11.5 GPa for both quasi-static deformed c-plane (0001) and m-plane (100) GaN. Taking into account theoretical Peierls–Nabarro stress and yield stress for each slip system, these phenomena were concluded to be an evidence of heterogeneous mechanism associated plastic deformation in GaN crystal. Transmission electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulation also supported the mechanism with obtained r-plane (012) slip line right after plastic deformation, so called pop-in event. The agreement of the experimentally obtained atomic shuffle energy with the calculated twin boundary energy suggested that the nucleation of the local metastable twin boundary along the r-plane concentrated the indentation stress, leading to an r-plane slip.