Eur. Phys. J. E (2006) 20: 355-364
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2006-10024-2

Regular Article

Plastic response of a 2D Lennard-Jones amorphous solid: Detailed analysis of the local rearrangements at very slow strain rate

Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée et Nanostructures, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR 5586 Domaine Scientifique de la Doua, F-69622, Villeurbanne cedex, France

^* e-mail: atanguy@lpmcn.univ-lyon1.fr

Received: 24 March 2006
Accepted: 13 July 2006
Published online: 24 July 2006

Abstract

We analyze in detail the atomistic response of a model amorphous material submitted to plastic shear in the athermal, quasi-static limit. After a linear stress-strain behavior, the system undergoes a noisy plastic flow. We show that the plastic flow is spatially heterogeneous. Two kinds of plastic events occur in the system: quadrupolar localized rearrangements, and shear bands. The analysis of the individual motion of a particle shows also two regimes: a hyper-diffusive regime followed by a diffusive regime, even at zero temperature.