Effects of Primary Stored Energy on Relaxation Behavior of High Entropy Bulk Metallic Glasses Under Compressive Elastostatic Loading

This paper aims to show the effects of primary stored energy in high entropy bulk metallic glasses (HE-BMGs) on their relaxation behavior after elastostatic loading process. For this purpose, three HE-BMGs with different chemical compositions and primary stored energy were fabricated. Differential scanning calorimetry and nanoindentation tests were carried out to evaluate the relaxation enthalpy and microscopic mechanical characterization of alloys. The results showed that increase in the number of element types in the alloying composition leads to the increment of stored energy and structural heterogeneity in the primary alloys. Moreover, the elastostatic loading rejuvenates the primary alloys; however, an optimum heterogeneity is needed for the maximum structural heterogeneity and stored energy in the glassy alloy. The hardness measurements also indicate that the elastostatic loading intensifies the hardness variations in the alloys, which may be due to the increased structural heterogeneity.