Nanoscratch Simulation on a Copper Thin Film Using a Novel Multiscale Model

Abstract

A two-dimensional (2D) multiscale model to simulate the nanoscratching of a copper thin film is discussed in this paper. The multiscale model uses the classical molecular dynamics (MD) method to simulate the atomistic region, the strong-form meshless Hermite-Cloud method to simulate the continuum region, and a novel handshaking algorithm to couple them together. The dependence of the coefficient of friction on parameters such as the scratch speed, indentation depth, and lattice structure has been investigated. A new scheme is also proposed to translate the atomistic region during the simulation; it allows a constant atomistic region size to be maintained. By restricting the size of the atomic region, and by maintaining it to be constant through the use of an adaptive nodal distribution scheme, the multiscale model is able to provide an efficient solution to the nanoscratch problem, saving on computational resources.