A Multiscale Approach to Predict the Mechanical Properties of Copper Nanofoams

Pure metallic nanofoams in the form of interconnected networks have shown strong potentials over the past few years in areas such as catalysts, batteries and plasmonics. However, they are often fragile and difficult to integrate in engineering applications. In order to better understand their deformation mechanisms, a multiscale approach is required to simulate the mechanical behavior of the nanofoams, although these materials will operate at the macroscale, they will still be maintaining an atomistic ordering. Hence, in this work we combine molecular dynamics (MD) and finite element analysis (FEA) to study the mechanical behavior of copper (Cu) nanofoams. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the yield surface of a representative cell structure. The nanofoam structure has been generated by spinodal decomposition of binary alloy using an atomistic approach. Then, the information obtained from the molecular dynamics simulations in the form of yield function is transferred to the finite element model to study the macroscopic behavior of the Cu nanofoams. The simulated mechanical behavior of Cu nanofoams is in good agreement of the real experiment results.