Heterogeneous fragmentation of metallic liquid microsheet with high velocity gradient

Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the fragmentation of metallic liquid sheets with high velocity gradient. Dynamic fragmentation of the system involves the formation of a network of fragments due to the growth and coalescence of holes, decomposition of the network into filaments, and further breakup of the filaments into spherical clusters. The final size distribution of the fragmented clusters in the large volume limit is found to obey a bilinear exponential form, which is resulted from the heterogeneous breakup of quasi-cylindrical filaments. The main factors contributing to fragmentation heterogeneity are introduced, including strain rate inhomogeneity and matter distribution nonuniformity of fragments produced during decomposition of the network structure.