Metallic Glass

Amorphous metals have an advantage over the crystalline form in that they have high hardness and high elastic energy, however, the need to reduce crystallization speed has constrained both the material choices and the application space.This Phase 1 project will carry out a survey of the state-of-the-art in metallic glasses, driven primarily by interviews with contemporary researchers in the field.Explosive shockwave consolidation will be used to densify commercially available SAM2X5 metallic glass powders into rods and tubes, establishing this technique as a viable mechanism for producing bulk material from amorphous powders without grain growth.The Phase 1 evaluation of metallic glass tubes as a building block for space structures will be a key focus and will drive the material selection choice for subsequent Phase 2 research.A successful demonstration of shockwave powder consolidation to produce a useful bulk metallic glass device opens the door for the use of mechanical alloying as a means for amorphous metal powder production without the status quo constraint of having to choose material sets that will crystallize slowly upon cooling.