Instability Analysis and Free Volume Simulations of Shear Band Directions and Arrangements in Notched Metallic Glasses

As a commonly used method to enhance the ductility in bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), the introduction of geometric constraints blocks and confines the propagation of the shear bands, reduces the degree of plastic strain on each shear band so that the catastrophic failure is prevented or delayed, and promotes the formation of multiple shear bands. The clustering of multiple shear bands near notches is often interpreted as the reason for improved ductility. Experimental works on the shear band arrangements in notched metallic glasses have been extensively carried out, but a systematic theoretical study is lacking. Using instability theory that predicts the onset of strain localization and the free-volume-based finite element simulations that predict the evolution of shear bands, this work reveals various categories of shear band arrangements in double edge notched BMGs with respect to the mode mixity of the applied stress fields. A mechanistic explanation is thus provided to a number of related experiments and especially the correlation between various types of shear bands and the stress state.