Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Stress Driven Crystallization of Metallic Glass under Different Temperatures

Crystallization of metal glass is an important approach to improve the ductility of these brittle materials. Besides the thermal effect, a number of researches verified that the stress is another factor causing crystallization. In this work, the crystallization behaviour of glassy copper under different temperatures and stresses is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. The separate contributions of temperature and stress are determined. The results show that the crystallization ratio increases with the increase of either temperature or stress. The strain hardening is positively related to the crystallization ratio, indicating that the strain hardening is caused by the crystallization to some extent.