Comparison of the mechanical properties of NiTi/Cu bilayer by nanoindentation and tensile test: molecular dynamics simulation

Molecular dynamics simulation was used to study of mechanical properties of NiTi/Cu bilayer by nanoindentation and tensile testing. A comparison has been made among mechanical properties measured and plastic deformation process at different copper thickness during nanoindnetation and tensile test of the samples. Embedded atom method potentials for describing of inter-atomic interaction and Nose-Hoover thermostat and barostat are employed in the simulation at 400 K. The results showed that as the copper film thickness decreased, the maximum load and hardness values increased during nanoindetation. Saha and Nix model is used to describe reduced young's modulus behaviour of the bilayer system through nanoindentation. A good agreement among calculated reduced elastic modulus by nanoindentation test and young's modulus behaviour via tensile test have been obtained. The 'incoherent interface' in both of nanoindentation test and tensile testing is one of the governing factors for the dislocation propagation, which resulted in significant strengthening of the bilayer. It was observed that during tensile test, only copper layers were necked and fractured in all of samples. However, the present study seeks to examine the effect of film thickness on the free energy values that is obtained using Jarzynski's equality during nanoindentation. As the copper film thickness was decreased, the free energy difference increased. According to both techniques, the thin film copper thickness provides lower number of nucleation locations resulting in the higher value of yield strength, hardness and free energy difference during nanoindenation. Mechanical properties of bilayer systems are improved with decreasing of copper film thickness. However, it specifies that strengths of all bilayer systems have prominent increase in young's modulus in compared to the pure NiTi.