Viscosity of the Zr₄₁.₂Ti₁₃.₈Cu₁₂.₅Ni₁₀.₀Be₂₂.₅ bulk metallic glass forming alloy above the liquidus temperature

Graduation date: 2006The viscosity of Zr[subscript 41.2]Ti[subscript 13.8]Cu[subscript 12.5]Ni[subscript 10.0]Be[subscript 22.5] (Vit1) has been measured above the liquidus\ud temperature, T[subscript liq]=1026 K, using a high vacuum high temperature rapid annealing\ud furnace equipped with a Couette Concentric Cylinder Rheometer. Steady state\ud measurements have been taken over a temperature range of 1075-1300 K and a shear rate\ud range of 10⁰-10² s⁻¹. It has previously been discovered that there exists a pronounced\ud decrease in viscosity with increasing shear rate which is contrary to the general belief that\ud metallic systems above the liquidus temperature should show Newtonian behavior due to\ud high atomic mobility. This suggests that there is short or medium range order present in\ud the liquid state that can be destroyed by shearing. This current study has discovered that\ud this shear rate dependence of the viscosity of Vit1 decreases with increasing temperature\ud and approaches the Newtonian behavior and viscosities of simple monatomic or binary\ud liquid alloys at 1225 K. Once this state is reached the viscosity will remain Newtonian in\ud the liquid state and no order is reformed until the sample is cooled into the supercooled\ud region. This indicates a strong temperature history dependence of the viscosity. It has\ud also been discovered that initially crystalline Vit1 has an order of magnitude lower\ud viscosity than initially amorphous Vit1 at 1075 K after melting. This difference\ud decreases with increasing temperature until similar viscosities are obtained at 1175 K.\ud The Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann relationship shows decreasing fragility of Vit1 with\ud increasing shear rate and increasing temperature. It was also seen that temperature has a\ud larger and more permanent effect on the fragility than shear rate. The development and\ud results of converting viscosity data to configurational entropy using the Adam-Gibbs\ud entropy model for viscous flow are discussed. This shows that the configurational\ud entropy present after melting is on the order of the entropy of fusion