Computational Modeling of Compressive Behavior of Wire-Reinforced Bulk Metallic Glass Matrix Composites

The effect of wire type and volume fraction on the compressive behavior of wire-reinforced bulk metallic glass (BMG) matrix composites were investigated using the finite element method. The composites and test procedure were simulated in the ABAQUS software, and analyses on stress propagation and extracted compressive stress-strain curves were performed, which showed an acceptable agreement with experimental results. The results exhibited that Ta, Mo, W and Stainless Steel type 302 as the reinforcement wires significantly improved the plastic strain of the composites. Meanwhile, W wires sustained the composite strength in the same level of monolithic BMG, without sacrificing noticeable plastic strain of the composite in comparison with other reinforcements. The different volume fractions of W wires showed that the trend of plastic strain progress with increase in the second phase reaches a maximum at 65% of reinforcements. This behavior is caused by the fracture mechanism of the composites which is in its optimum condition when the reinforcement volume fraction is equal to 65%. The mechanical properties of the wire-reinforced BMG composites can be modeled by using the iso-strain Voigt model, which allows the prediction of the mechanical properties of a composite from the volume-weighted averages of the components properties. The above-mentioned findings corroborate the experiments elsewhere and may be considered as a valuable starting point to lead the future researches.