On the distinct tensile flow of amorphous Fe78Si9B13 alloy at 430 °C during continuous annealing

It was reported in previous paper that there appears a distinct tensile flow of amorphous Fe78Si9B13 ribbon at 430 °C during a continuous heating. In order to investigate the distinct tensile flow, further works were conducted in present work. The broken fracture surface and the side face of the tensile flowed ribbon were observed using SEM. The structural change of the ribbon was detected by means of in situ XRD. The effects of tensile stress, heating rate and preannealing on the distinct tensile flow were tested. The results show that the distinct tensile flow is resulted from a structural transition and annealing condition affects it markedly. It is concluded that the structural transition occurring at 430 °C is the nucleation of α-Fe (Si) crystallites and the effect of heating rate on the distinct tensile flow is closely related to the structural relaxation of amorphous Fe78Si9B13 alloy.