Molecular dynamic simulation of effect of crystallographic orientation on nano-indentation/scratching behaviors of BCC iron

A molecular dynamics model has been developed to investigate the effect of the crystallographic orientation on the material deformation behaviors in nano- indentation/scratching of BCC iron. Two cases with different substrate orientations have been simulated. The orientations along x, y and z direction are [001], [100] and [010] for Case I and [111], [-1-12] and [1-10] for Case II, respectively. Case I and Case II exhibit different deformation patterns in the substrate. During indentation, the pile-up can be observed in Case I, but not in Case II. During scratching the pile-up ahead of the movement of the indenter has been enlarged in Case I, while a chip with the disordered atoms is generated in Case II. It has been found that Case I has both higher hardness and larger coefficient of friction. The ratios of the hardness and the coefficient of friction between cases I and II are nearly 2. The reason is attributed to the different crystallographic orientations used in both cases