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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Softening caused by profuse shear banding in a bulk metallic glass
H Bei1, S Xie, E P George
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 37996, USA.
Abstract:
By controlling the specimen aspect ratio and strain rate, compressive strains as high as 80% were obtained in an otherwise brittle metallic glass. Physical and mechanical properties were measured after deformation, and a systematic strain-induced softening was observed which contrasts sharply with the hardening typically observed in crystalline metals. If the deformed glass is treated as a composite of hard amorphous grains surrounded by soft shear-band boundaries, analogous to nanocrystalline materials that exhibit inverse Hall-Petch behavior, the correct functional form for the dependence of hardness on shear-band spacing is obtained. Deformation-induced softening leads naturally to shear localization and brittle fracture.
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