Effect of Temperature and Potential on BCC-Fe Nanoindentation Process

Abstract The irradiation mechanism of iron-based alloys has proven to be related to dislocation movement and interaction between dislocation and irradiation defect. Fe is an important element of the iron-based alloys. The single crystal iron is selected as the material of the indenter and the substrate when molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is launched. This article studies the effect of the different temperature and potential functions on the dislocation evolution and mechanical properties of single crystal iron in the nanoindentation process. Results show that temperature affects the load-displacement curve; the potential has no effect on the trend of the load-displacement curve, but it has an impact on the value of the load; the dislocation behavior of the substrate after compression results in a jagged load-displacement curve (pop-in event). These results are of great significance for understanding the dislocation behavior of the typical body centered cubic (BCC) metal during nanoindentation process.