Abstract
As a commonly used method to enhance the ductility in bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), the introduction of geometric constraints blocks and con nes the propagation of the shear bands, reduces the degree of plastic strain on each shear band so that the catastrophic failure is prevented or delayed, and promotes the formation of multiple shear bands. The clustering of multiple shear bands near notches is often interpreted as the reason for improved ductility. Experimental works on the shear band arrangements in notched metallic glasses have been extensively carried out, but a systematic theoretical study is lacking. Using instability theory that predicts the onset of strain localization and the free-volume- based nite element simulations that predict the evolution of shear bands, this work reveals various categories of shear band arrangements in double edge notched BMGs with respect to the mode
mixity of the applied stress elds. A mechanistic explanation is thus provided to a number of related experiments and especially the correlation between various types of shear bands and the stress state.