Influence of microstructural features on the plastic deformation behavior of metallic nanoglasses

O Adjaoud and K Albe, ACTA MATERIALIA, 168, 393-400 (2019).

DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2019.02.033

We investigate the influence of microstructural properties on the plastic deformation behavior of Cu-64 Zr-36 nanoglasses by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Two different setups are used to prepare nanoglasses. One sample type is a nanoglass obtained by cold-compaction of chemically homogenous and inhomogenous nanoparticles. The second type is generated by assembling pre-shaped polyhedral cuts from the bulk phase. A detailed analysis of both types of microstructures shows that the volume fraction of interfaces in the particle-derived nanoglasses is significantly higher than in the bulk-derived nanoglasses with the same average grain size. The simulations also reveal a clearly distinct plastic response on uniaxial loading: The particle derived samples do not show a stress drop upon yielding, very little strain localization and no strain softening, whereas the bulk-derived samples exhibit a stress drop, strain softening and large strain localization upon loading. These findings are explained in terms of the different glass- glass interfaces present in both structure types. Our results therefore show that the macroscopic deformation behavior of metallic nanoglasses is intimately linked to the structure and topology of the glass-glass interfaces which in turn depend on the processing route. (C) 2019 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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