Composition Mediated Serration Dynamics In Zr-Based Bulk Metallic Glasses

The composition mediated serration dynamics in Zr-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) is investigated by statistics analyses of the elastic-energy density, and free volumes during shear-banding are beneficial to understand serrated-flow behavior. The amplitude and elastic-energy density display a gradually increasing and then decreasing trend with increasing the content of Zr. It is based on the free-volume theory describing the atomic-level structure of ternary Zr-Cu-Al BMGs. The good agreement between the molecular dynamics simulation and experimental results provides evidence for the variation of free volumes as the elementary mechanism of composition mediated serration dynamics. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.