Research opens up metallic glass
Researchers at Rice University have developed a calculation model that may explain where and why metallic glasses break. Scientists have long known that glasses form stress bands that make glass more prone to breakage in certain spots than others. The same is true of metallic glass – a hybrid glass compound that creates a super-strong material that may have unusual properties usually reserved for metals.
Knowing how and where a metallic glass might break gives engineers an advantage when designing parts that need to be ultra-durable – such as parts for a satellite or space vehicle. Metallic glasses typically deform under stress, but they don’t usually break. Their durability is what makes them ideal for extreme environments, so knowing how, why or when a part may break is critical.
Although the researchers are especially interested in the behavior of metallic glass, their findings could be applied to non-metallic glasses, too. One reason that the glass forms shear bands is that the molecular arrangement of glass (and metallic glass) isn’t crystalline. The amorphous structure of glass allows molecules to continue to move, even when glass has achieved an apparently solid state.
In most cases, when the glass isn’t under stress, molecular movement is imperceptibly slight. When the glass is stressed, however, the molecular movement increases notably. The areas where molecular movement is the greatest coincides with the development of the shear bands in the glass. The shear bands are ultimately the areas of the glass that fail, causing breakage.
The research means that scientists and engineers will be able to more easily calculate the actual strength of glass and metallic glasses quickly. That information can help materials scientists calculate the fitness of a particular glass formulation for a specific application without having to rely on trial-and-error testing.
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Photo Credit: Hugh Dutton Associés, via Flickr.com
