Three-Dimensional Unit Cell Study of a Porous Bulk Metallic Glass Under Various Stress States

Porous bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) exhibit an excellent combination of superior mechanical properties such as high strength, high resilience, large malleability, and energy absorption capacity. However, a mechanistic understanding of their response under diverse states of stress encountered in practical load-bearing applications is lacking in the literature. In this work, this gap is addressed by performing three-dimensional finite element simulations of porous BMGs subjected to a wide range of tensile and compressive states of stress. A unit cell approach is adopted to investigate the mechanical behavior of a porous BMG having 3% porosity. A parametric study of the effect of stress triaxialities T = 0, ±1/3, ±1, ±2, ±3, and ±∞, which correspond to stress states ranging from pure deviatoric stress to pure hydrostatic stress under tension and compression, is conducted. Apart from the influence of T, the effects of friction parameter, strain-softening parameter and Poisson’s ratio on the mechanics of deformation of porous BMGs are also elucidated. The results are discussed in terms of the simulated stress-strain curves, pore volume fraction evolution, strain to failure, and development of plastic deformation near the pore. The present results have important implications for the design of porous BMG structures.