Mechanical behavior of tungsten preform reinforced bulk metallic glass composites

Quasistatic and dynamic compression tests were conducted on four tungsten preform reinforced Vit105 (Zr52.5Ti5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10) and Vit106 (Zr57Nb5Cu15.4Ni12.6Al10) metallic glass composites. All the composites exhibited large plastic strain under both quasistatic and dynamic compression. In general, the dynamic loading resulted in higher failure stress than the quasistatic loading. The deformation behavior was found to be dominated by the ductile W phase. Microscopic observation of the deformed and fractured specimens revealed shear banding in the glassy phase, cracking along the particle boundaries and severe deformation of W particles. It is also found that the processing methods have strong influence on the mechanical behavior of the composites even when they have the same matrix and the same volume fractions of the reinforcement.