Identification of Mechanical Characteristics of an Amorphous Metallic Material

Abstract

The research aims to identify the mechanical characteristics of an amorphous metallic alloy as cast and after heating, and suggests the effects of applications of such a material as a filler in composites. The amorphous state of Zirconium-based alloy is obtained through melt-spinning and is identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The region of heating is identified by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Two types of samples are tested under one-axial tension. The first are made of the alloy in amorphous state. The others are made of the same alloy but after heating and cooling at air, which may provoke changes in the amorphous structure to formation of nanocrystals. For the two types of samples, the stress-strain diagrams and parameters of bilinear material models are drawn applying FEM-simulation of the observed tensile behaviour. The obtained stress-strain diagrams are illustratively compared with a similar one for conventional copper. The results could be useful in the design of composite materials with properties given in advance for each material phase. That is demonstrated by an analytical example predicting the effective modulus of elasticity for two-phased composite material.