Transportation and deformation of high-speed aluminum nanoparticles in inert gas with molecular dynamics study

In addition to complex deformation, high-speed nanoparticles in gas are also accompanied by significant size and interfacial effects. In this work, we simulate the transportation behavior of high-speed aluminum nanoparticles in helium gas with the classical molecular dynamics method. The evolution of aerothermodynamic quantities of solid particles and liquid particles is revealed, and different temperature rise effects are found. Furthermore, the melting of aluminum particles induced by high aerodynamic drag force is discovered, and the melting threshold conditions are proposed. In low-density (0.002 g/cm3) and high-density (0.02 g/cm3) gas, the initial velocity at which particles start to melt is 6 and 4 km/s, respectively. During the deformation of solid particles, the evolution of dislocation motion is discussed, and the evolution of the development characteristics of the molten layer is given. During the deformation of the liquid particles, vibration deformation and bag deformation modes are observed. The threshold conditions for deformation mode transitions are also given. Only in high-density gas, bag deformation occurs when the initial velocity of particles (D > 5 nm) exceeds 6 km/s. The local mechanical quantity of gas is used to explain the variation of the drag force of the particles. Moreover, the drag force model is corrected according to temperature and deformation effects. Within a certain period, the model results overestimate the drag force, and the error with the simulation results is about 25%. This provides a model reference for high-speed nanoparticle dynamics and two-phase flow problems.