Investigation on shock-induced reaction characteristics of a Zr-based metallic glass

Abstract The shock-induced reaction behavior of ZrCuNiAl bulk metallic glass (BMG) was investigated by means of a modified quasi-sealed test chamber. A series of quasi-sealed chamber impact experiments were conducted through launching ZrCuNiAl BMG fragments into the test chamber. It was shown that the semi-sphere shape of the modified quasi-sealed chamber suits the expanding manner of reactions. The results demonstrated that the BMG fragments underwent chemical reaction when impacted onto steel target. The energy released by reaction led to significant pressure rise inside the quasi-sealed chamber. It was shown that the amount of energy increased with the increasing of impact velocity. A relationship between the overpressure inside the chamber and the released chemical energy was derived to analyze the effect quantitatively.