The total rate of rock deformation results from competing deformation processes, including ductile and brittle mechanisms. Particular deformation styles arise from the dominance of certain mechanisms over others at different ambient conditions. Surprisingly, rates of deformation in naturally deformed rocks are found to cluster around two extremes, representing coseismic slip rates or viscous cr...

Compressive mechanical properties of low-density, open-cell Zr-based bulk metallic glass foams processed by the salt replication method are investigated as a function of relative density and pore size in the ranges 14–28% and 150–355 lm, respectively. Scaling behaviors for strength and stiffness are discussed in the context of models developed for conventional metal foams, and appropriate modif...

Current understanding of the brittleness of glass is limited by our poor understanding and control over the microscopic structure. In this study, we used a pressure quenching route to tune the structure of silica glass in a controllable manner, and observed a systematic increase in ductility in samples quenched under increasingly higher pressure. The brittle to ductile transition in densified s...

Ductile bulk metallic glass of composition 53.0Zr–18.7Cu–12.0Ni–16.3Al (at%) is plastically deformed under uniaxial compression and observed in situ by synchrotron high-energy X-ray diffraction. The diffraction patterns reveal the induced atomic strain is orientation dependent. At the onset of plastic deformation, the atomic strain in the compression direction saturates to a close-nearest-neigh...

Deformation of ductile crystalline-amorphous nanolaminates is not well understood due to the complex interplay of interface mechanics, shear banding, and deformation-driven chemical mixing. Here we present indentation experiments on 10 nm nanocrystalline Cu-100 nm amorphous CuZr model multilayers to study these mechanisms down to the atomic scale. By using correlative atom probe tomography and ...

A meso-mechanical damage model is developed to predict the tensile damage behaviors of bulk metallic glass composites (BMGCs) toughened by ductile particles. In this model, the deformation behaviors of the BMG matrix and particles are described by the free volume model and Ludwik flow equation, respectively. Weng's dual-phase method is used to establish the relationship between the constituents...

The stress configuration and tectonic analysis of the Pan – African orogeny is drawn from the Igarra schist belt, southwestern Nigeria. The analysis of conjugate shear fractures of the schist belt indicates that two distinct compressive events (NE – SW and E – W) occurred in this Pan – African mobile zone. The palaeostress systems reveal a clockwise rotation of compressional axis from D1 (NE – ...

Shear bands generally initiate strain softening and result in low ductility of metallic glasses. In this Letter, we report high-resolution electron microscope observations of shear bands in a ductile metallic glass. Strain softening caused by localized shearing was found to be effectively prevented by nanocrystallization that is in situ produced by plastic flow within the shear bands, leading t...