On the compressive failure of tungsten fiber reinforced Zr-based bulk metallic glass composite

In this paper, a combination of experimentation and analysis is used to identify and study the mechanisms that govern the failure of tungsten fiber reinforced Zr_41.2Ti_13.8Cu₁₀Ni_12.5Be_22.5 bulk metallic glass composite. In the experimental part, quasi-static and dynamic compressive behaviors of this composite with various fiber volume fractions were systematically investigated. For this composite under uniaxial compression, both the microstructure and strain rate are found to affect the compressive failure behavior. With the increasing fiber volume fraction, or with the decreasing strain rate, the failure mode of the composite switches from shear to splitting. Motivated by the experimental findings, an energy competition mechanism is proposed to unveil these fundamental behaviors of the tungsten fiber reinforced bulk metallic glass composite. The critical energy dissipations for shear banding and splitting of the composite are derived as the functions of tungsten fiber volume fraction and strain rate. It is found that the failure behavior of the composite is decided by the energy competition between shear banding and splitting.