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Ultradelayed material failure via shear banding after straining an amorphous material

Henry A. Lockwood, Emily S. Carrington, and Suzanne M. Fielding*

  • Department of Physics, Durham University, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom

  • *Contact author: suzanne.fielding@durham.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. E 112, 015404 – Published 10 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/b64y-61lt

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.

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Phys. Rev. E 112, 015404– Published 10 July, 2025
  • Received 13 February 2025
  • Accepted 19 May 2025
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