Bulk Metallic Glasses Conference, Singapore, September 24-28, 2000

United Engineering Trustees, Inc., New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

In this United Engineering Foundation conference in Singapore (Sept. 24-28, 2000) the recent progress in both fundamental aspects and applications of bulk metallic glasses will be discussed. Topics include the atomic structure, materials synthesis, glass-forming ability, and physical, chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties of metallic glasses. Metallic glasses with amorphous structures were first synthesized by Paul Duwez in the early 1960s using rapid solidification techniques. A breakthrough in the design of metallic glasses was first made in 1989 in Japan when bulk quantities of material were successfully synthesized with multi-element systems. The critical cooling rates of these bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) containing multiple alloying elements approach those of oxide glasses. At present, BMGs based on Zr, Ti, Ni, Fe, Co, Al, Mg, and rare-earth elements have all been successfully synthesized. %%% BMGs constitute a new and exciting class of metallic materials with interesting properties for structural and functional use. For the past decade, substantial advances have been achieved in understanding the glass forming ability and synthesizing new bulk amorphous alloys containing multi-components. BMGs with cross-sectional thickness greater than 3 cm can now be produced by conventional melting and casting techniques. Despite this technological success, fundamental understanding of phase stability, impurity effects, localized shear band formation, and non-Newtonian flow behavior is still lacking. ***