Ultra-delayed material failure via shear banding after straining an amorphous material

Lockwood, Henry A.; Carrington, Emily S.; Fielding, Suzanne M.

Abstract

We predict a phenomenon of catastrophic material failure arising suddenly within an amorphous material, with an extremely long delay time since the material was last deformed. By simulating a mesoscopic soft glassy rheology model in one dimension (1D), a mesoscopic elastoplastic model in 1D and 2D, and a continuum fluidity model in 1D, we demonstrate the basic physics to involve a dramatic ultra-delayed shear banding instability, in which strain suddenly strongly localizes within the material and the stress drops precipitously. The delay time after the long historical shear strain was applied before failure occurs increases steeply with decreasing strain amplitude, decreasing working temperature, and increasing sample annealing prior to shear. In demonstrating the same physics—which is directly testable experimentally and in particle simulations—to obtain within three different constitutive models, we suggest it may be generic across amorphous materials. The counter-intuitive prediction of catastrophic material failure long after any deformation was last applied could have important consequences for material processing and performance.

Citation

Lockwood, H. A., Carrington, E. S., & Fielding, S. M. (2025). Ultra-delayed material failure via shear banding after straining an amorphous material. Physical Review E, 112, Article 015404. https://doi.org/10.1103/b64y-61lt

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 19, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Jul 10, 2025
• Publication Date: Jul 10, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jul 14, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 14, 2025
• Journal: Physical Review E
• Print ISSN: 2470-0045
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0053
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 112
• Article Number: 015404
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/b64y-61lt
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4265453