Mechanical Behaviour of Glasses and Amorphous Materials

A wide range of materials can exist in microscopically disordered solid\nforms, referred to as amorphous solids or glasses. Such materials -- oxide\nglasses and metallic glasses, to polymer glasses, and soft solids such as\ncolloidal glasses, emulsions and granular packings -- are useful as structural\nmaterials in a variety of contexts. Their deformation and flow behaviour is\nrelevant for many others. Apart from fundamental questions associated with the\nformation of these solids, comprehending their mechanical behaviour is thus of\ninterest, and of significance for their use as materials. In particular, the\nnature of plasticity and yielding behaviour in amorphous solids has been\nactively investigated. Different amorphous solids exhibit behaviour that is\napparently diverse and qualitatively different from those of crystalline\nmaterials. A goal of recent investigations has been to comprehend the unifying\ncharacteristics of amorphous plasticity and to understand the apparent\ndifferences among them. We summarise some of the recent progress in this\ndirection. We focus on insights obtained from computer simulation studies, and\nin particular those employing oscillatory shear deformation of model glasses.\n