Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
This work focuses on the development of a classical molecular dynamics (MD) framework that can be used to analyze the quasi-static strength, elastic-constants, and dynamic strength of nanostructured Fe2O3+Al reactive metal powder (NRMP) mixtures. An interatomic potential is developed for the Fe2O3+Al NRMP system, accounting for the behavior of Al, Fe, Fe-Al intermetallics, Fe2O3, and Al2O3. This potential can be regarded as a generalization and combination of several existing potentials for the individual components in the system. The potential incorporates electronegativity equalization to account for pressure-induced phase transformation. In addition, the parameter set of the potential is capable of predicting the elastic properties of components over a range of 0 - 900 K.