On the mechanical β relaxation in glass and its relation to the double-peak phenomenon in impulse excited vibration at high temperatures

A viscoelastic model is established to reveal the relation between alpha-beta relaxation of glass and the double-peak phenomenon in the experiments of impulse excited vibration. In the modelling, the normal mode analysis (NMA) of potential energy landscape (PEL) picture is employed to describe mechanical alpha and beta relaxations in a glassy material. The model indicates that a small beta relaxation can lead to an apparent double-peak phenomenon resulted from the free vibration of a glass beam when the frequency of beta relaxation peak is close to the natural frequency of specimen. The theoretical prediction is validated by the acoustic spectrum of a fluorosilicate glass beam excited by a mid-span impulse. Furthermore, the experimental results indicate a negative temperature-dependence of the frequency of beta relaxation in the fluorosilicate glass S-FSL5 which can be explained based on the physical picture of fragmented oxide-network patches in liquid-like regions.