Extra rejuvenation of Zr 55 Cu 30 Al 10 Ni 5 bulk metallic glass using elastostatic loading and cryothermal treatment interaction

Abstract

This work reports the feasibility of extra rejuvenation in a ZrCuAlNi bulk metallic glass (BMG) under combination of cryothermal treatment and tensile elastostatic loading in low stresses. Pair distribution function analysis shows that the annihilation of Cu-centered clusters as well as the increase in population of Al-centered clusters and intensification of spatial connectivity are signs of rejuvenation evolution under cryothermal treatment. On the other side, tensile elastostatic loading leads to an extensive disordering through the both short range and medium range scales. The maximum stored energy values with cryothermal treatment and elastostatic loading in the BMG were 0.52 and 0.73 Kj/mol, respectively. The combination of two mentioned processes on a BMG sample also indicates that the material can inherit the characteristics of structural changes which are caused by both cryothermal treatment and tensile loading altogether. This event generates an extra stored energy in the metallic glass (0.92 Kj/mol).