Fracture and fatigue behaviour of a laser additive manufactured Zr-based bulk metallic glass

Laser additive manufacturing of bulk metallic glass (BMG) provides an effective bypassing of the critical casting thickness constraints that limit the size of components that can be produced; however, open questions remain regarding the resulting mechanical properties. In this work, a Zr-based BMG known as AMZ4 with composition Zr59.3Cu28.8Nb1.5Al10.4 was printed using a laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technique. Micro X-ray computed tomography results together with electron microscopy imaging revealed porous processing defects in LPBF produced AMZ4 that led to a loss in tensile strength. Fatigue crack growth studies revealed a fatigue threshold, ΔKth., of ∼1.33 MPa√m and a Paris law exponent of m = 1.14, which are relatively low values for metallic materials. A KIC fracture toughness of 24−29 MPa√m was found for the LPBF BMG samples, which is much lower than the KQ of 97−138 MPa√m and KJIC of 158−253 MPa√m measured for the cast alloy with the same composition. The lower fracture toughness of the laser processed AMZ4 was attributed to ∼7.5× higher dissolved oxygen in the structure when compared to the cast AMZ4. Despite the higher level of oxygen, the formation of oxide nanocrystals was not observed by transmission electron microscopy. Oxygen induced toughness loss was confirmed by dissolving elevated concentrations of oxygen into cast AMZ4 rods, which led to a reduction in bending ductility and changes in the short-range order of the glass structure, as revealed by synchrotron X-ray diffraction