The atomistic mechanism of notch sensitivity on the deformation mode in metallic glasses

In previous studies, the influence of flaws on macro-scale and nano-scale metallic glasses (MGs) has always been a topic of great interest, with important applications in engineering. Moreover, through experiments and simulations, many researchers draw contradictory conclusions of the notch sensitivity, including the notch strengthening, weakening, and insensitivity in different MGs. In order to better understand its atomic mechanism, classical molecular dynamics simulations have been performed on the nano-scale notched MGs in the present work to investigate the deformation modes under the uniaxial tension. According to the results, after setting notches, the MG samples exhibit a significant change from the shear to necking failure, which indicates a notch strengthening phenomenon. At the same time, the evolution of atomic structures suggests that the introduction of notches will increase the degree of shear localization and further disturb the structural order of MGs. The atomic displacement, which is different from shear strain, can also be used as an index to visually describe the deformation behavior of MGs and shows the high notch sensitivity. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.