title: Softening caused by profuse shear banding in a bulk metallic glass.
abstract: By controlling the specimen aspect ratio and strain rate, compressive strains as high as 80% were obtained in an otherwise brittle metallic glass. Physical and mechanical properties were measured after deformation, and a systematic strain-induced softening was observed which contrasts sharply with the hardening typically observed in crystalline metals. If the deformed glass is treated as a composite of hard amorphous grains surrounded by soft shear-band boundaries, analogous to nanocrystalline materials that exhibit inverse Hall-Petch behavior, the correct functional form for the dependence of hardness on shear-band spacing is obtained. Deformation-induced softening leads naturally to shear localization and brittle fracture.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 37996, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bei
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: George