Mechanical deformation of nanocrystalline materials

The deformation of a nanometre-size wire containing multiple grain boundaries has been studied using molecular dynamics. We observe a splitting of the grain boundaries, followed by the migration of the new grain boundaries, leading to a complete transformation of the original grains. The stress-strain curves obtained from the simulations clearly show the effect of the grain boundaries on the mechanical properties. These simulations show how the grain boundaries in nanocrystalline materials dominate the mechanical properties.