Fracture toughness study of new Zr-based Be-bearing bulk metallic glasses

Abstract

Three new compositional variants of the Zr–Ti–Be–LTM (late transition metal) family of metallic glasses are discussed. Thermal stability, ΔT = T_x−T_g, was increased from 82 °C for Zr_(41.2)Ti_(13.8)Cu_(12.5)Ni_(10)Be_(22.5) (Viterloy 1) to 141 °C for Zr_(44)Ti_(11)Cu_(20)Be_(25). It is found that fracture toughness is the most distinguishing parameter characterizing the alloys in contrast to other mechanical properties. Quaternary alloys consistently had fracture toughness values exceeding 80 MPa m^(1/2), while for Vitreloy 1 K_Q = 48.5 MPa m^(1/2) with a large amount of scatter. Adding iron reduced the fracture toughness to 25 MPa m^(1/2).

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