Effect of notch depth on the mechanical behavior of Cu50Zr50 metallic glasses revealed by molecular dynamics simulations

GJ Yang and B Xu and C Qi and LT Kong and JF Li, INTERMETALLICS, 93, 303-311 (2018).

DOI: 10.1016/j.intermet.2017.10.010

Metallic glasses (MGs) with various geometrical notches have been one of the most attractive research topics because of their interesting mechanical behavior. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations were employed to examine the effect of internal notch depth on the mechanical behavior of Cu50Zr50 MGs. It is shown that both the strength and the deformation mode are sensitive to the notch depth, and in particular to the inter-void ligament distance. With increasing the notch depth, the notch intensification gets enhanced, while the deformation mode is seen to change from shear banding dominated to mixed mode and then to necking governed. Detailed stress distribution analysis reveals that the notch intensification and the deformation mode transition result from the stress state change induced by the presence of notches. The critical effective shear stress corresponding to local/atomic yielding in the MGs is identified to be around 1.9 GPa. In addition, the intrinsic size confinement effect also influences the deformation process. The findings are expected to provide useful guidance for materials design and investigation of yielding in MGs based on atomistic simulations.

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