Deep learning model to predict fracture mechanisms of graphene

Understanding fracture is critical to the design of resilient nanomaterials. Molecular dynamics offers a way to study fracture at an atomistic level, but is computationally expensive with limitations of scalability. In this work, we build upon machine-learning approaches for predicting nanoscopic fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lew, Andrew James, Yu, Chi-Hua, Hsu, Yu-Chuan, Buehler, Markus J
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics
Format: Article
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132662
Description
Summary:Understanding fracture is critical to the design of resilient nanomaterials. Molecular dynamics offers a way to study fracture at an atomistic level, but is computationally expensive with limitations of scalability. In this work, we build upon machine-learning approaches for predicting nanoscopic fracture mechanisms including crack instabilities and branching as a function of crystal orientation. We focus on a particular technologically relevant material system, graphene, and apply a deep learning method to the study of such nanomaterials and explore the parameter space necessary for calibrating machine-learning predictions to meaningful results. Our results validate the ability of deep learning methods to quantitatively capture graphene fracture behavior, including its fractal dimension as a function of crystal orientation, and provide promise toward the wider application of deep learning to materials design, opening the potential for other 2D materials.