Some aspects of the fracture behaviour of Mg65Cu25Y10 bulk metallic glass during room-temperature bending

The fracture behaviour of Mg65Cu25Y10 bulk metallic glass (BMG) during room-temperature three-point bending was investigated. The BMG was initially produced by casting into a wedge-shaped mold which generated an amorphous structure below the ∼4 mm thickness zone of the wedge. Three-point bend testing was then carried out on the BMG with the fracture angles and salient features of the fracture surfaces examined by scanning electron microscopy. Observations indicate that this type of deformation mode results in fracture via crack propagation from both surfaces of the samples where the tensile and compressive stresses are greatest. The direction of crack propagation was also found to deviate considerably from 45° to the length direction of sample. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study of the fracture surfaces indicated that deformation banding was a feature of crack propagation within compressive zone whereas the tensile zone generated a featureless surface characteristic of brittle failure. The mechanism of failure of the present alloy is discussed on the basis of the observed features on the fracture surfaces and the direction of propagation of cracks during failure and compared with the failure mechanism of samples fractured under both simple tension and compression.