Composition, Elastic Property and Packing Efficiency Predictions for Bulk Metallic Glasses in Binary, Ternary and Quaternary Systems

The results of database based on the efficiency packed model for metallic glasses. The database contains the atomic radii information as well as elastic properties of the most commonly used alloying elements, permitting composition, packing efficiency and elastic property predictions to be made for binary, ternary and quaternary bulk metallic glasses. Twenty different alloys per system (binary, ternary and quaternary) experimentally reported in the literature were compared with those estimated by the database. Comparison charts and diagrams showed good agreement between the composition predictions and those reported from the experimentally processed metallic glasses. The elastic properties predictions could be used to elaborate Blackman diagrams in order to know, in advance, the intrinsic toughness that the investigated alloys might present. The database is intended for designing bulk metallic glasses. Finally, some quaternary alloys were experimentally produced based on the prediction obtained with the database, showing a glassy phase. The microhardness values obtained experimentally of the Zr_57.52Ag_10.62Al_10.62Co_21.24, Zr_57.19Al_10.7Ni_10.7Cu_21.41 and Hf_60.22Al_9.95Cu_9.95Ni_19.89alloys, are 3.8, 4.0 and 3.6 GPa, respectively. The Young´s modulus calculated using microhardness values (E/H_v = 20) are closed to the values obtained by the "mixing rules".

Keywords:
Bulk metallic glasses; Packing efficiency; Glass formation