Abstract
Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) often deform by the formation of localized shear bands which is followed by sudden shear fracture. This fracture behavior has been found to depend on not only the shear stress but also the stress normal to the shear plane, and the Mohr-Coulomb criterion has been applied to characterize shear fracture of BMGs. However, systematic verification of its applicability is non-existent because of the inability of controlling the normal to shear stress ratio on the fracture plane in the existing tests performed on BMGs. Here, we use a unique test fixture that is capable of controlling (i) the location of shear fracture and (ii) the normal to shear stress ratio on the fracture plane to perform tests on BMGs to verify the applicability of the Mohr-Coulomb criterion.
