3D Crystal Lattice Deformation Simulator

Material

Applied strain (tension →, ← compression) 0.000

Stress σ

0 MPa

Strain ε

0.000

Phase

Elastic

Peak stress

0 MPa

Young's modulus E

–

Yield strain

–

How it works

The crystal is a real 3D cubic lattice of point masses connected to their axial and face-diagonal neighbours by Hookean springs, F = −k·(L − L₀). The left face is pinned; the right face is displaced by the applied strain, and the whole 3D network relaxes toward equilibrium every frame with a real physics solver — the deformation, slip and fracture you see are computed, not animated.

F = -k(L - L0)           Hooke's law, per bond
if |ε_bond| > ε_yield:    plastic slip (dislocation glide)
  L0 += flowRate·excess·dt   rest length creeps → permanent set
if |ε_bond| > ε_fracture: bond breaks permanently

Elastic region — below the yield strain, bond rest lengths are untouched: linear Hooke's-law behaviour, σ = E·ε, fully reversible.
Plastic region — a bond stretched past its yield strain has its rest length creep toward its current length, the same permanent, irreversible shift a gliding dislocation leaves in a real crystal.
Fracture — bonds stretched past the fracture strain snap outright; once every bond crossing the measured mid-plane has broken, the two halves of the crystal separate and drift apart in 3D.
Stress readout — the axial component of every bond force crossing a cut plane through the crystal's middle, summed and divided by the cross-section's area.

Real-world relevance: dislocation glide and bond rupture in a 3D crystal lattice are the literal atomic-scale mechanism behind a metal's yield strength and a ceramic's brittle fracture — this is the same physics a materials engineer studies with molecular dynamics, just at a scale you can rotate and watch directly.

Elastic bond Yielding (plastic) Near fracture

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