Role of thermal expansion heterogeneity in the cryogenic rejuvenation of metallic glasses

• Published in: JPhys materials 2018-12, Vol.1 (1), p.15001
• Main Authors: Shang, Baoshuang, Guan, Pengfei, Barrat, Jean-Louis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amorphous materials; Condensed Matter; Continuum mechanics; Heterogeneity; local thermal expansion; Materials Science; Mechanical analysis; Metallic glasses; Molecular dynamics; Physics; Residual stress; Spatial distribution; Thermal cycling; thermal cycling rejuvenation; Thermal expansion; Yield stress
• ISSN: 2515-7639; 2515-7639
• DOI: 10.1088/2515-7639/aad451

Cryogenic rejuvenation in metallic glasses reported in Ketov et al 's experiment (2015 Nature 524 200) has attracted much attention, both in experiments and numerical studies. The atomic mechanism of rejuvenation has been conjectured to be related to the heterogeneity of the glassy state, but the quantitative evidence is still elusive. Here we use molecular dynamics simulations of a model metallic glass to investigate the heterogeneity in the local thermal expansion. We then combine the resulting spatial distribution of thermal expansion with a continuum mechanics calculation to infer the internal stresses caused by a thermal cycle. Comparing the internal stress with the local yield stress, we prove that the heterogeneity in thermo mechanical response has the potential to trigger local shear transformations, and therefore to induce rejuvenation during a cryogenic thermal cycling.