Viscous flow and microforming of a Zr-base bulk metallic glass

The thermal plastic deformation behavior of the (Zr53Cu30Ni9Al8)(99.5)Si-0.5 bulk metallic glass (BMG) was studied by means of thermo mechanical analysis (TMA) and high-temperature compression test in the supercooled liquid region. Using the result obtained from TMA, the deformation behavior for (Zr53Cu30Ni9Al8)(99.5)Si-0.5 BMG rod was investigated by compression test at different strain rates (5 x 10(-3) similar to 5 x 10(-1) s(-1)) and temperatures in the supercooled liquid region, specifically at 733 K, 738 K, 743 K, 748 K, and 753 K. The value of flow stress with a constant strain rate of 5 x 10(-3) s(-1) decreases with increasing temperature and reaches a relatively low flow stress of 36 MPa at the test temperature of 753 K. Conversely, the value of flow stress increases with the strain rate in compression. In this paper, an imprinted hologram pattern with 0.6 mu m depth was demonstrated which showed extremely good microforming ability of this (Zr53Cu30Ni9Al8)(99.5)Si-0.5 BMG in the supercooled liquid region. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.