Atomistic simulations are carried out to investigate the effect of strain rate on the bioinspired nanocomposite model. This model is composed of a stair-wise staggered arrangement (SSA) of hard nanosized reinforcements embedded in soft matrix. A critical strain-rate is observed above which tremendous temperature rise is observed along with amorphizationlike and single-dislocation slipping deformation mechanisms. At lower strain-rates, the dislocation-dominated deformations are observed with nominal temperature increase. These understandings might be useful in biomimetic applications.

Keywords: Strain-rate, Molecular dynamics, Nanocomposite, Deformation mechanisms.