Plastic Deformation Of Metallic Glasses Research Articles

Deformation of metallic glasses: Recent developments in theory, simulations, and experiments

We review recent research into elastic and plastic deformation of metallic glasses, with an emphasis on making connections between developments in theory and simulation (largely from the physics community) and experimental results (largely from the metallurgy community). Topics covered include strain measurement via scattering techniques, non-affine atomic displacements during elastic deformation, shear transformations, constitutive equations, shear bands, and strain hardening. Where possible we connect the observed behavior and properties to the structure of the glass on the atomic- and nano-scales.

Localized crystallization in shear bands of a metallic glass.

Stress-induced viscous flow is the characteristic of atomic movements during plastic deformation of metallic glasses in the absence of substantial temperature increase, which suggests that stress state plays an important role in mechanically induced crystallization in a metallic glass. However, it is poorly understood. Here, we report on the stress-induced localized crystallization in individual shear bands of Zr60Al15Ni25 metallic glass subjected to cold rolling. We find that crystallization in individual shear bands preferentially occurs in the regions neighboring the amorphous matrix, where the materials are subjected to compressive stresses demonstrated by our finite element simulations. Our results provide direct evidence that the mechanically induced crystallization kinetics is closely related with the stress state. The crystallization kinetics under compressive and tensile stresses are interpreted within the frameworks of potential energy landscape and classical nucleation theory, which reduces the role of stress state in mechanically induced crystallization in a metallic glass.

Deformation in Metallic Glasses Studied by Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction

High mechanical strength is one of the superior properties of metallic glasses which render them promising as a structural material. However, understanding the process of mechanical deformation in strongly disordered matter, such as metallic glass, is exceedingly difficult because even an effort to describe the structure qualitatively is hampered by the absence of crystalline periodicity. In spite of such challenges, we demonstrate that high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurement under stress, using a two-dimensional detector coupled with the anisotropic pair-density function (PDF) analysis, has greatly facilitated the effort of unraveling complex atomic rearrangements involved in the elastic, anelastic, and plastic deformation of metallic glasses. Even though PDF only provides information on the correlation between two atoms and not on many-body correlations, which are often necessary in elucidating various properties, by using stress as means of exciting the system we can garner rich information on the nature of the atomic structure and local atomic rearrangements during deformation in glasses.

Interactions of Shear Bands in a Ductile Metallic Glass

Shear bands play a key role in the plastic deformation of metallic glasses (MGs). Even though there are extensive studies on the initiation and propagation of shear bands, the interactions among them have not been systematically studied yet. The interactions between the primary shear bands (PSBs) and secondary shear bands (SSBs) in a ductile Zr-based MG were studied. The residual stress near PSBs can deflect the propagation direction and reduce the propagation velocity of SSBs, which contributes to the plasticity and toughness of the MG. It was demonstrated that the probability and strength of the interactions between PSBs and SSBs would become stronger for MGs with larger Young's modulus and smaller shear modulus, i.e., larger Poisson's ratio. These results are valuable in understanding the plastic deformation of MGs and may be helpful in designing new MGs with desirable mechanical properties.

Nanoindentation investigation on the creep mechanism in metallic glassy films

Using the magnetron sputtering technique, two metallic glassy films namely Cu44.3Zr45.1Al10.6 and Cu44.2Zr43Al11.3Ti1.5 were prepared by alloy targets. The minor Ti addition effectively induces excess free volume. Upon spherical nanoindentation, the creep behaviors of both films were studied at various peak loads. As the increase of peak load, the creep deformations became more severely in both samples. Interestingly, Cu–Zr–Al–Ti film crept stronger than Cu–Zr–Al at small-load holdings (nominal elastic regimes), whereas it is opposite at high-load holdings (plastic regimes). The creep characteristic could be intrinsically related to the scale variation of the shear transformation zone (STZ) with Ti addition. Statistical analysis was employed to estimate the STZ volume, which increased by 60% with Ti addition in the Cu–Zr–Al film. The finite element modeling indicated that STZs would be activated even at the minimum load we adopted. Higher activation energy of larger STZs in Cu–Zr–Al–Ti enables less flow units, which offsets the creep enhancement by the excess free volume with Ti addition. The deeper the pressed depth of the indenter, the more contribution of the STZ operation on creep deformation. In addition, experimental observation on the creep flow rates implies that STZ could be the dominating mechanism at the steady-state creep. This study reveals that STZ volume could also be important to the time-dependent plastic deformation in metallic glass, besides as a key parameter for instantaneous plasticity.

Direct in situ observation of metallic glass deformation by real-time nano-scale indentation.

A common understanding of plastic deformation of metallic glasses (MGs) at room temperature is that such deformation occurs via the formation of runaway shear bands that usually lead to catastrophic failure of MGs. Here we demonstrate that inhomogeneous plastic flow at nanoscale can evolve in a well-controlled manner without further developing of shear bands. It is suggested that the sample undergoes an elasto-plastic transition in terms of quasi steady-state localized shearing. During this transition, embryonic shear localization (ESL) propagates with a very slow velocity of order of ~1 nm/s without the formation of a hot matured shear band. This finding further advances our understanding of the microscopic deformation process associated with the elasto-plastic transition and may shed light on the theoretical development of shear deformation in MGs.

Structural features of plastic deformation in bulk metallic glasses

Spatially resolved strain maps of a plastically deformed bulk metallic glass (BMG) have been created by using high-energy X-ray diffraction. The results reveal that plastic deformation creates a spatially heterogeneous atomic arrangement, consisting of strong compressive and tensile strain fields. In addition, significant shear strain is introduced in the samples. The analysis of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the strain tensor indicates that considerable structural anisotropy occurs in both the magnitude and direction of the strain. These features are in contrast to the behavior observed in elastically deformed BMGs and represent a distinctive structural sign of plastic deformation in metallic glasses.

Discontinuities of Plastic Deformation in Metallic Glasses with Different Glass Forming Ability

The metallic ribbons Fe40Ni40B20, Cu47Ti35Zr11Ni6Si1 and Zr65Cu17.5Ni10Al7.5 with different microhardness and glass forming ability were studied at different loading rates from 0.05 to 100 mN/s. We describe in details the differences in elemental discontinuities on the loading curves for the studied alloys. It was found that the discontinuities began at a certain local deformation independently on the macroscopic mechanical properties of a ribbon. More developed discontinuities at higher deformations are created for the materials with lower microhardness and so lower strength.

Flow unit perspective on room temperature homogeneous plastic deformation in metallic glasses.

A mandrel winding method, which can realize remarkable homogeneous plastic deformation at room temperature for various metallic glasses, is applied to characterize plastic flow units and study their relationship with macroscopic deformations and relaxations. The method can provide information on the activation energy, activation time, size, intrinsic relaxation time, distribution, and density of flow units. We find the plasticity of a metallic glass can be controlled through modulating the features of flow units. The results have benefits for better understanding the structural origins of deformations and relaxations, and for designing metallic glasses with improved performances.

Understanding the brittleness of metallic glasses through dynamic clusters

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On the plasticity event in metallic glass

Based on a systematic molecular dynamics analysis, this study reveals that plastic deformation of metallic glass is not through a uniform configuration change but via many localized plasticity events. These events are manifested by the atomic clusters of high kinetic energy and high strain rate, emerging even in the elastic deformation regime. The life of such a plasticity event is on the order of 10−12 s, during which the distribution of kinetic energy follows a power law. The study shows that yielding in metallic glass occurs at the sudden surge point of the number of plasticity events. In the steady plastic deformation regime, the continuous nucleation and annihilation of the plastic events lead to a steady flow stress and stabilized total potential energy.

Plastic Deformation Clusters with High Kinetic Energy in Metallic Glass

Although localized atomic rearrangements have been considered to be the underlying mechanism of plastic deformation in metallic glass, the nucleation and evolution of such plasticity events are still elusive. With the aid of molecular dynamics analysis, this study revealed that a series of localized atomic rearrangement events would occur in metallic glass as demonstrated by the formation of high-kinetic-energy clusters. It was found that atomic clusters of average sizes of 1 to 2 nm nucleate during elastic deformation, and become prevailing after yielding. The cores of these clusters contain several high-velocity atoms, which drive the local structural change and accommodate plastic strain. The nucleation and evolution of the local plasticity events are shown clearly by the strong dynamic signature, attributed to the spontaneous structural reshuffling after crossing an energy barrier.

The deformation units in metallic glasses revealed by stress-induced localized glass transition

We report that even in quasi-static cyclic compressions in the apparent elastic regimes of the bulk metallic glasses, the precisely measured stress-strain curve presents a mechanical hysteresis loop, which is commonly perceived to occur only in high-frequency dynamic tests. A phenomenological viscoelastic model is established to explain the hysteresis loop and demonstrate the evolutions of the viscous zones in metallic glasses during the cyclic compression. The declining of the viscosity of the viscous zones to at least 1 × 1012 Pa s when stress applied indicates that stress-induced localized glass to supercooled liquid transition occurs. We show that the deformation units of metallic glasses are evolved from the intrinsic heterogeneous defects in metallic glasses under stress and the evolution is a manifestation of the stress-induced localized glass transition. Our study might provide a new insight into the atomic-scale mechanisms of plastic deformation of metallic glasses.

On the characteristic length scales associated with plastic deformation in metallic glasses

Atomistic simulations revealed that the spatial correlations of plastic displacements in three metallic glasses, FeP, MgAl, and CuZr, follow an exponential law with a characteristic length scale ℓc that governs Poisson’s ratio ν, shear band thickness tSB, and fracture mode in these materials. Among the three glasses, FeP exhibits smallest ℓc, thinnest tSB, lowest ν, and brittle fracture; CuZr exhibits largest ℓc, thickest tSB, highest ν, and ductile fracture, while properties of MgAl lie in between those of FeP and CuZr. These findings corroborate well with existing experimental observations and suggest ℓc as a fundamental measure of the shear transformation zone size in metallic glasses.

Low temperature uniform plastic deformation of metallic glasses during elastic iteration

Molecular dynamics simulations and dynamic mechanical analysis experiments were employed to investigate the mechanical behavior of metallic glasses subjected to iteration deformation in a nominally elastic region. It was found that cyclic deformation leads to the formation of irreversible shear transformation zones (STZs) and a permanent uniform strain. The initiation of STZs is directly correlated with the atomic heterogeneity of the metallic glass and the accumulated permanent strain has a linear relation with the number of STZs. This study reveals a new deformation mode and offers insights into the atomic mechanisms of STZ formation and low temperature uniform plastic deformation of metallic glasses.

Free volume simulation for severe plastic deformation of metallic glasses

Evolution of internal parameters of metallic glasses subjected to high pressure torsion was simulated using a free volume based thermo-mechanical model. Steady state has been predicted in the whole, plastically sheared volume for large strains irrespectively from the applied revolution rate. Based on the simplification of the model equations in steady state, simple methods were obtained to determine the in situ temperature increase and stress distribution from external torque measurements.

Correlation between relaxations and plastic deformation, and elastic model of flow in metallic glasses and glass-forming liquids

We study the similarity and correlations between relaxations and plastic deformation in metallic glasses (MGs) and MG-forming liquids. It is shown that the microscope plastic events, the initiation and formation of shear bands, and the mechanical yield in MGs where the atomic sites are topologically unstable induced by applied stress, can be treated as the glass to supercooled liquid state transition induced by external shear stress. On the other hand, the glass transition, the primary and secondary relaxations, plastic deformation and yield can be attributed to the free volume increase induced flow, and the flow can be modeled as the activated hopping between the inherent states in the potential energy landscape. We then propose an extended elastic model to describe the flow based on the energy landscape theory. That is, the flow activation energy density is linear proportional to the instantaneous elastic moduli, and the activation energy density ρE is determined to be a simple expression of ρE=1011G+111K. The model indicates that both shear and bulk moduli are critical parameters accounting for both the homogeneous and inhomogeneous flows in MGs and MG-forming liquids. The elastic model is experimentally certified. We show that the elastic perspectives offers a simple scenario for the flow in MGs and MG-forming liquids and are suggestive for understanding the glass transition, plastic deformation, and nature and characteristics of MGs

Stick-slip dynamics and recent insights into shear banding in metallic glasses

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Structural Signature of Plastic Deformation in Metallic Glasses

The structure feature of a model CuZr metallic glass during deformation is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. A spatially heterogeneous irreversible rearrangement is observed in terms of nonaffine displacement. We find that regions with smaller nonaffine displacement have more Voronoi pentagons, while in those with larger nonaffine displacement other types of faces are more populated. We use the degree of local fivefold symmetry (LFFS) as the structural indicator to predict plastic deformation of local structures and find that the plastic events prefer to be initiated in regions with a lower degree of LFFS and propagate toward regions with a higher degree of LFFS.

Homogenization of plastic deformation in metallic glass foils less than one micrometer thick

Metallic glasses do not possess crystalline structures with slip systems that provide for plastic deformation via dislocation glide. As such, when put under applied stress, they show a wide reversible elastic deformation ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\text{el}}\ensuremath{\approx}2\mathrm{%}$ before plastic flow occurs heterogeneously by localization in shear bands only tens of nanometers in thickness. Very recently, there have been reports that in microscopic (submicron thickness) pillars, such shear bands no longer form and deformation occurs homogeneously. Here we report on plastic deformation of submicron thickness foils of metallic glasses. When such foils are compressed or notched, a similar transition occurs from the usual heterogeneous plastic deformation mode via shear banding to more homogeneous deformation without formation of shear bands. Some shape instabilities in the form of vortices observed at interfaces between plastic zones and nondeformed regions are consistent with sharp deformation-induced density, velocity, and viscosity gradients. The onset of homogeneous deformation in the microscopic regime is discussed in relation to shear-band formation energy and thickness.