Applying principles of molecular dynamics to simulating adhesive contact between nanocrystalline cylindrical probe and plane

With the appearance of nanomaterial, the adhesive force between surfaces needs to be more closely scrutinized. We apply the principles of molecular dynamics to simulating the behavior of adhesive contact between rigid cylindrical probe and elastic half-space substrate, both consisting of copper nanocrystals. In the full paper, we explain in detail the application of the principles of molecular dynamics to our particular problem. In this abstract, we just add some pertinent remarks to listing the two topics of explanation. The first topic is: the model for rigid cylindrical probe and elastic half-space substrate. In the first topic, we devise the model according to the principles of molecular dynamics using the classical Lennard-Jones potential. Also in the first topic, we mention that the three probes we use have different radii of 10r₀, 20r₀ and 30r₀ respectively, where r₀ = 0.2277 nm according to Ref.2 authored by P. M. Agrawal et al. The second topic is: results and discussion. The four subtopics of the second topic are: the process of contact and separation (subtopic 2.1), the jump to contact and the adhesive hysteresis (subtopic 2.2), the zero-loading state and the pressure contact state (subtopic 2.3) and the von Mises stress distribution for each contact state (subtopic 2.4). In the second topic, there are figures in the full paper summarizing the calculation results, which indicate preliminarily that; (1) the adhesive hysteresis is more apparent with increasing radius of probe; (2) high von Mises stress regions exist at the edge of contact due to adhesion; (3) the maximum von Mises stress increases steeply during pressure contact with decreasing radius of probe.