On the Kaiser effect in bulk metallic glasses

Abstract The Kaiser effect appears during the testing of samples in the repetitive loading and unloading regimes and is found in the fact that the acoustic emission (AE) originates in each subsequent loading only when the stress exceeds its maximum value achieved in the preceding loading. We observed the Kaiser effect in measurements of AE during uniaxial compression of samples of the bulk metallic glasses Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 and Zr52.5Ti5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10 at room temperature. It is shown that the Kaiser effect recovers after annealing below the glass transition temperature. Mechanisms of structure reconstructions providing the Kaiser effect and its recovery are considered within the framework of polycluster model.