Understanding the correlation of plastic zone size with characteristic dimple pattern length scale on the fracture surface of a bulk metallic glass

Fatigue pre-crack toughness measurements following standard procedures for a model Zr61Cu17.3Ni12.8Al7.9Sn1 glass in as-cast and annealed states were performed. Plastic zone size was found to be very sensitive to the internal states of this glass and be correlated with the characteristic dimple pattern length on fracture surfaces. Effect of plastic work energy dissipation on two characteristic length scales in the vicinity of a crack tip was discussed, in addition to the analyses of excess free volumes and Poissonʹs ratio.