Viscosity and structure relaxation in Zr60Cu20Al10Ni10 metallic glass

This work reports the estimation of the viscosity, relaxation time and free volume of Zr ₆₀Cu ₂₀Al ₁₀Ni ₁₀ metallic glass (MG) by extrapolating differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermo-mechanical analyzer (TMA), and nanoindentation measurement data. The structural relaxation process of Zr ₆₀Cu ₂₀Al ₁₀Ni ₁₀ MG is shown through the study of viscosity and relaxation behavior also displayed by these measurements. It has the ability to exhibit strong fluid behavior near the glass transition temperature and exhibits a large strength parameter of 26.9 and a Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman temperature of 378 K. At the same time its stress relaxation exhibits sensitivity to strain rate and paused load. Finally, we estimated the residual free volume from melt freezing inside the Zr ₆₀Cu ₂₀Al ₁₀Ni ₁₀ MG by DSC technique as 0.041. These results indicate that the Zr ₆₀Cu ₂₀Al ₁₀Ni ₁₀ MG has a large free volume and exhibits both strong fluidic properties and significant stress relaxation behavior.