EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Effect of Microstructure on the Mechanical Response of 'Soft' Metallic Alloys
Speaker: Professor Deborah Sulsky
Speaker Info: University of New Mexico
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

Tin-Lead (Sn-Pb) alloys are widely used as soldering materials in semiconductor and communications devices. Solder is often physically constrained between materials with differing coefficients of thermal expansion. Thermal fluctuations caused by environmental factors or operating conditions strain the solder joints. Deformation is observed to localize in a coarsened band until a crack is formed that ultimately leads to failure. Although this has been known for a long time, the evolution of damage and its relation to microstructural changes is still not understood well. We will describe the material-point method (MPM) that is used to model binary alloys at the microscopic level. Simulations are carried out using a small sample of grains or colonies, but still using a continuum constitutive description for each grain or colony. Results from numerical simulations will be presented that give plausible mechanisms for the observed coarsening and failure behavior in solder.