A thermoplastic forming map of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass

A thermoplastic forming (TPF) map of a Zr35Ti30Be26.75Cu8.25 bulk metallic glass was constructed through systematic hot-embossing experiments, spanning a wide range of strain rates and temperatures in the supercooled liquid region. By comparison with the corresponding deformation map, it is found that Newtonian flow, non-Newtonian flow and inhomogeneous flow regions correspond well to fully filled, partially filled and non-filled regions, respectively, in the hot-embossing TPF map. Furthermore, the spatio-temporally homogeneous flow facilitates the thermoplastic formability of the Zr-based bulk metallic glass, which is rationalized in terms of free volume theory as well as by finite element simulations. Finally, our results are corroborated by potential application tests.