On the nature of heat effects and shear modulus softening in metallic glasses: A generalized approach

The paper presents a new approach to the nature of heat effects and shear modulus softening in metallic glasses. The approach is based on the assumption that the glass contains quenched-in "defects"-elastic dipoles. Using the nonlinear elastic representation of the internal energy of glass with quenched-in elastic dipoles, we derive a simple analytical law, which connects the heat flow and temperature derivative of the shear modulus. Specially performed experiments confirmed the validity of this law. The exothermal and endothermal heat processes in glass reveal through the relaxation of the shear modulus confirming it as a key parameter for the understanding the relaxation processes in glasses. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.