Thermal-activation model for freezing and the elastic robustness of bulk metallic glasses
- Condensed Matter Theory Group, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland)
- California Institute of Technology, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91125-8100 (United States)
Despite significant atomic-scale heterogeneity, bulk metallic glasses well below their glass transition temperature exhibit a surprisingly robust elastic regime and a sharp elastic-to-plastic transition. Here it is shown that, when the number of available structural transformations scales exponentially with system size, a simple thermal-activation model is able to describe these features, where yield corresponds to a change from a barrier energy dominated to a barrier entropy dominated regime of shear transformation activity, allowing the system to macroscopically exit its frozen state. A yield criterion is then developed, which describes well the existing experimental data and motivates future dedicated deformation experiments to validate the model.
- OSTI ID:
- 21596934
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 84, Issue 22; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.220201; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1098-0121
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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