Rejuvenation‐to‐Relaxation Transition Induced by Elastostatic Compression and Its Effect on Deformation Behavior in a Zr‐Based Bulk Metallic Glass

Abstract

The effect of uniaxial elastostatic compression on the deformation behavior of the Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 (Vit1) bulk metallic glass (BMG) was reported. The as‐cast alloy was precompressed under various time (20, 40 and 60 h) at a preloading level of 87% of its yield strength. It was found that elastostatic compression can lead to structural rejuvenation or relaxation depending on the pre‐compression time. Elastostatic compression, for 40 h, increased the free volume and improved the plasticity of the BMGs from 1.4% to 3.4%, but preloading for 60 h decreased the free volume and worsened the plasticity. In addition, the heterogeneous structure evolution during creep deformation has been analyzed by the Maxwell‐Voigt model with two Kelvin units, revealing that more (less) defects with larger size are activated after elastostatic compression treatment for 40 h (60 h). This work sheds new light on the correlation between heterogeneous structure and plasticity/creep behaviors of Zr‐based BMGs.