Accelerated rejuvenation in metallic glasses subjected to elastostatic compression along alternating directions

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 2021. Vol. 556. Article 120562.

Priezjev N.

The influence of static stress and alternating loading direction on
the potential energy and mechanical properties of amorphous alloys
is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. The model
glass is represented via a binary mixture which is first slowly
annealed well below the glass transition temperature and then
subjected to elastostatic loading either along a single direction or
along two and three alternating directions. We find that at
sufficiently large values of the static stress, the binary glass
becomes rejuvenated via collective, irreversible rearrangements of
atoms. Upon including additional orientation of the static stress in
the loading protocol, the rejuvenation effect is amplified and the
typical size of clusters of atoms with large nonaffine displacements
increases. As a result of prolonged mechanical loading, the elastic
modulus and the peak value of the stress overshoot during startup
continuous compression become significantly reduced, especially for
loading protocols with alternating stress orientation. These
findings are important for the design of novel processing methods to
improve mechanical properties of metallic glasses.

Keywords: Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Publication based on the results of: Supercomputer technologies for atomistic modeling of physical processes in condensed matter (2021)