Interaction and coalescence of nanovoids and dynamic fracture in silica glass: Multimillion-to-billion atom molecular dynamics simulations

In this review, we present our recent results for atomistic mechanisms of damage nucleation and growth and dynamic fracture in silica glass. These results have been obtained with multimillion-to-billion atom, parallel, molecular dynamics simulations of (1) the interaction and coalescence of nanovoids in amorphous silica subjected to dilatational strain and (2) the nucleation, growth and healing of wing cracks and damage nanocavities in silica glass under impact loading. We also give an overview of our current efforts to perform dynamic fracture simulations over microsecond time scales and multiscale simulations of stress corrosion cracking in silica glass. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.