Atomistic-Continuum Constitutive Modeling Connection for Gold Foams under Compression at High Strain Rates: The Dislocation Density Effect

Constitutive description of the plastic flow in metallic foams has been rarely explored in the literature. Even though the material is of great interest to researchers, its plasticity remains a topic that has a much room for exploration. With the help of the rich literature that explored the material deformation mechanism, it is possible to introduce a connection between the results of the atomistic simulations and the well-established continuum constitutive models that were developed for various loading scenarios. In this work, we perform large-scale atomistic simulations of metallic gold foams of two different sizes at a wide range of strain rates (107−109 s−1) under uniaxial compression. By utilizing the results of those simulations, as well as the results we reported in our previous works, a physical atomistic-continuum dislocations-based constitutive modeling connection is proposed to capture the compressive plastic flow in gold foams for a wide range of sizes, strain rates, temperatures, and porosities. The results reported in this work present curated datasets that can be of extreme usefulness for the data-driven AI design of metallic foams with tunable nanoscale properties. Eventually, we aim to produce an optimal physical description to improve integrated physics-based and AI-enabled design, manufacture, and validation of hierarchical architected metallic foams that deliver tailored mechanical responses and precision failure patterns at different scales.