Molecular dynamics simulation of crystallization in an amorphous metal during shear deformation

A molecular dynamics simulation was performed to investigate the structural changes during a shear deformation process in an amorphous metal. An amorphous model is constructed from Ni atoms interacting via a Morse-type pairwise additive potential. At shear stresses below 2.4 GPa, shear strain increased linearly with increasing shear stress. However, large shear deformation occurred when shear stress reached 2.8 GPa. During this shear deformation, crystallization was observed in the model. The crystalline phase had an fcc structure which had an orientation relationship, i.e., the shear direction and a (111) plane are parallel. This relationship was consistent with our experimental study on a Ni-P amorphous alloy.