Micro-deformation mechanism of Zr-based metallic glass/porous tungsten composite by in-situ high-energy X-ray diffraction and finite element modeling

Micromechanical behaviors of Zr-based metallic glass/porous tungsten composite under quasi-static uniaxial compression at room temperature were investigated by in-situ high-energy X-ray diffraction (HEXRD) technique based on the synchrotron source and finite element modeling (FEM). During the process of compression, the main load phase was tungsten phase until it yielded at an applied stress of 1175 MPa. Subsequently, metallic glass phase became the main load phase. The plastic misfit strain of the two phases resulted in stress concentration near interfaces between them, which accelerated the process of stress transfer from the tungsten phase to the metallic glass phase. The metallic glass phase started to yield at 1500 MPa; at that time defects weakened the mutual restriction between the metallic glass phase and the tungsten phase, leading the tungsten phase to fail or the interfaces between two phases to separate by the increasing load.