Numerical study of shear banding evolution in bulk metallic glass composites

•Free volume theory is employed to simulate the effect of various microstructures.•The toughening mechanisms of BMG composites are clearly elucidated.•The present method is verified, and parameter analyses are fatherly conducted.

In this article, a systematic simulation was performed to demonstrate the detailed shear banding evolution in bulk metallic glass (BMG) composites subjected to the tension, and the relation between microstructures and tensile ductility was therefore elucidated. Free volume was adopted as an internal state variable to characterize the shear banding nucleation, growth and coalescence in BMG matrix with the help of free volume theory, which was incorporated into ABAQUS finite element method (FEM) code as a user material subroutine. The present numerical method was firstly verified by comparing with the corresponding experimental results, and then parameter analyses were conducted to discuss the impacts of particle volume fraction, particle shape, particle orientation and particle yielding strength on the enhancement efficiency of the tensile ductility of BMG composites.

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