Ductility enhancement in nanoglass: role of interaction stress between flow defects

Abstract

Using a thermodynamically consistent non-local plasticity model, the mechanistic origin of enhancement in ductility and suppression of dominant shear banding in nanoglasses (NGs) is analysed. It is revealed that the interaction stress between flow defects plays a central role in promoting global plasticity of NGs. Specifically, we find that the intrinsic length associated with this stress provides a scaling for the shear band width and its coupling with grain size governs the level of enhancement in the deformation behaviour of NGs. The present work may provide useful insights in developing highly ductile NGs for practical engineering applications.

Keywords:

• metallic glass
• nanoglass
• ductility
• finite element analysis

Acknowledgements

RN would like to thank the Department of Science and Technology (Government of India) for financial support under the JC Bose Fellowship scheme, and also the Scientist-in-Residence Programme at IHPC, Singapore.