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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Structural evolution and strength change of a metallic glass at different temperatures
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Tong, X.; Wang, G.; Stachurski, Z.H.; Bednarčík, J.; Mattern, N.; Zhai, Q.J.; Eckert, J.
    The structural evolution of a Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10 metallic glass is investigated in-situ by high-energy synchrotron X-ray radiation upon heating up to crystallization. The structural rearrangements on the atomic scale during the heating process are analysed as a function of temperature, focusing on shift of the peaks of the structure factor in reciprocal space and the pair distribution function and radial distribution function in real space which are correlated with atomic rearrangements and progressing nanocrystallization. Thermal expansion and contraction of the coordination shells is measured and correlated with the bulk coefficient of thermal expansion. The characteristics of the microstructure and the yield strength of the metallic glass at high temperature are discussed aiming to elucidate the correlation between the atomic arrangement and the mechanical properties.
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    Inductive flash-annealing of bulk metallic glasses
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2017) Kosiba, K.; Pauly, S.
    We developed a temperature-controlled inductive flash-annealing device, which heats bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) at defined rates of up to 200 K/s to a given temperature. Subsequent instantaneous quenching in water allows preserving the microstructures obtained at various stages of crystallization. One Zr-based and two CuZr-based BMGs were flash-annealed at the onset of crystallization with different heating rates in order to prepare advanced BMG-matrix composites. The highly reproducible composite microstructures contain uniformly dispersed crystals and a narrow crystal size distribution. In order to assess the limitations of the present process, which mainly originate from non-uniform inductive heating, the skin depth was calculated. It is determined to be about 2.3 mm, which enables flash-annealing of rather bulky samples. The cooling rate was estimated from the interlamellar spacing of eutectic Al-Cu alloys to be on the order of 103 K/s. This ensures that decomposition of the microstructure during quenching is prevented. The present flash-annealing procedure is applicable to a wide variety of glass-forming liquids and has a large potential for tailoring the microstructure and, consequently, the mechanical properties of BMG-matrix composites.
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    Local microstructure evolution at shear bands in metallic glasses with nanoscale phase separation
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) He, Jie; Kaban, Ivan; Mattern, Norbert; Song, Kaikai; Sun, Baoan; Kim, Do Hyang; Eckert, Jürgen; Greer, A.Lindsay
    At room temperature, plastic flow of metallic glasses (MGs) is sharply localized in shear bands, which are a key feature of the plastic deformation in MGs. Despite their clear importance and decades of study, the conditions for formation of shear bands, their structural evolution and multiplication mechanism are still under debate. In this work, we investigate the local conditions at shear bands in new phase-separated bulk MGs containing glassy nanospheres and exhibiting exceptional plasticity under compression. It is found that the glassy nanospheres within the shear band dissolve through mechanical mixing driven by the sharp strain localization there, while those nearby in the matrix coarsen by Ostwald ripening due to the increased atomic mobility. The experimental evidence demonstrates that there exists an affected zone around the shear band. This zone may arise from low-strain plastic deformation in the matrix between the bands. These results suggest that measured property changes originate not only from the shear bands themselves, but also from the affected zones in the adjacent matrix. This work sheds light on direct visualization of deformation-related effects, in particular increased atomic mobility, in the region around shear bands.
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    A tensile deformation model for in-situ dendrite/metallic glass matrix composites
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2013) Qiao, J.W.; Zhang, T.; Yang, F.Q.; Liaw, P.K.; Pauly, S.; Xu, B.S.
    In-situ dendrite/metallic glass matrix composites (MGMCs) with a composition of Ti46Zr20V12Cu5Be17 exhibit ultimate tensile strength of 1510 MPa and fracture strain of about 7.6%. A tensile deformation model is established, based on the five-stage classification: (1) elastic-elastic, (2) elastic-plastic, (3) plastic-plastic (yield platform), (4) plastic-plastic (work hardening), and (5) plastic-plastic (softening) stages, analogous to the tensile behavior of common carbon steels. The constitutive relations strongly elucidate the tensile deformation mechanism. In parallel, the simulation results by a finite-element method (FEM) are in good agreement with the experimental findings and theoretical calculations. The present study gives a mathematical model to clarify the work-hardening behavior of dendrites and softening of the amorphous matrix. Furthermore, the model can be employed to simulate the tensile behavior of in-situ dendrite/MGMCs.
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    Two-phase quasi-equilibrium in β-type Ti-based bulk metallic glass composites
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Zhang, L.; Pauly, S.; Tang, M.Q.; Eckert, J.; Zhang, H.F.
    The microstructural evolution of cast Ti/Zr-based bulk metallic glass composites (BMGCs) containing β-Ti still remains ambiguous. This is why to date the strategies and alloys suitable for producing such BMGCs with precisely controllable volume fractions and crystallite sizes are still rather limited. In this work, a Ti-based BMGC containing β-Ti was developed in the Ti-Zr-Cu-Co-Be system. The glassy matrix of this BMGC possesses an exceptional glass-forming ability and as a consequence, the volume fractions as well as the composition of the β-Ti dendrites remain constant over a wide range of cooling rates. This finding can be explained in terms of a two-phase quasi-equilibrium between the supercooled liquid and β-Ti, which the system attains on cooling. The two-phase quasi-equilibrium allows predicting the crystalline and glassy volume fractions by means of the lever rule and we succeeded in reproducing these values by slight variations in the alloy composition at a fixed cooling rate. The two-phase quasi-equilibrium could be of critical importance for understanding and designing the microstructures of BMGCs containing the β-phase. Its implications on the nucleation and growth of the crystalline phase are elaborated.