Impression of Temperature and Oxide Layer Thickness on the Mechanical Characteristics of Aluminum ultra-thin film

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Hamedan, Iran

Abstract

Thin aluminum films have various applications in different industries because of their special properties, including low density and high ductility. Due to the progress in the manufacturing process, it is now possible to produce ultra-thin aluminum films with very low thickness, even on the nanoscale. This paper aims to numerically investigate the mechanical behavior of ultra-thin aluminum films using the molecular dynamics (MD) method. Because of the high reactivity of aluminum in the vicinity of oxygen, the representative volume elements (RVEs) of the aluminum film are simulated based on the aluminum core-alumina shell model to study the effect of different thicknesses of the surface oxide layer. In order to stabilize the atomistic RVEs under environmental conditions, the relaxation process is applied, and the total energy of the system is minimized. Then, the relaxed configuration of RVEs is analyzed under different mechanical tests, and their different mechanical parameters such as Young's modulus, bulk modulus, shear modulus, and different material characteristics are calculated at different temperatures. The accuracy of the numerical simulations is validated by comparing the results with the experimental data. Based on the MD results, analytical relations are presented to determine the different mechanical parameters of thin aluminum films as a function of the oxide layer thickness and ambient temperature. Comparison of the proposed analytical relations with the experimental data, demonstrates their capability and generalizability for the micro- and macro-size aluminum sheets.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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