Atomic Mechanism of Flow in Simple Liquids under Shear
  Atomic correlations in a simple liquid in steady-state flow under shear stress were studied by molecular dynamics simulation. The local atomic level strain was determined through the anisotropic pair-density function (PDF). The atomic level strain has a limited spatial extension whose range is dependent on the strain rate and extrapolates to zero at the critical strain rate. A failure event is identified with altering the local topology of atomic connectivity by exchanging bonds among neighboring atoms. 
Takuya Iwashita and Takeshi Egami
cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.soft