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Making metallic glasses plastic by control of residual stress

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 857–860 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Metallic glasses, now that many compositions can be made in bulk1,2,3, are of interest for structural applications exploiting their yield stress and yield strain, which are exceptionally high for metallic materials4. Their applicability is limited by their near-zero tensile ductility resulting from work-softening and shear localization. Even though metallic glasses can show extensive local plasticity, macroscopically they can effectively be brittle, and much current research is directed at improving their general plasticity. In conventional engineering materials as diverse as silicate glasses and metallic alloys, we can improve mechanical properties by the controlled introduction of compressive surface stresses5,6,7. Here we demonstrate that we can controllably induce such residual stresses in a bulk metallic glass, and that they improve the mechanical performance, in particular the plasticity, but that the mechanisms underlying the improvements are distinct from those operating in conventional materials.

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Figure 1: Cross-section through a shot-peened layer on the surface of Zr-based bulk metallic glass.
Figure 2: Effects of shot-peening on the surface residual stress and hardness.
Figure 3: Effects of surface treatments on plasticity in three-point bending.
Figure 4: Effects of surface treatments on plasticity in uniaxial compression.

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Acknowledgements

Y.Z. acknowledges support from Trinity College Cambridge and the Schlumberger Cambridge Trust, W.H.W. from the National Science Foundation of China and A.L.G. from the European Commission under MCRTN contract ‘Ductile bulk metallic glass composites’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK

    Y. Zhang & A. L. Greer

  2. Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, People’s Republic of China

    W. H. Wang

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  1. Y. Zhang
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  2. W. H. Wang
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  3. A. L. Greer
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Contributions

Y.Z. was responsible for the experimental work, W.H.W. for supervising sample preparation, A.L.G. for supervising structural characterization and mechanical testing, and all authors for interpretation of results.

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Correspondence to A. L. Greer.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Zhang, Y., Wang, W. & Greer, A. Making metallic glasses plastic by control of residual stress. Nature Mater 5, 857–860 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1758

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