Research on the Simulation of Solidification Parameters during Zr Based Bulk Metallic Glass Matrix Composite’s (BMGMCs) Additive Manufacturing

After a silence of three decades, bulk metallic glasses and their composites have re-emerged as a
competent engineering material owing to their excellent mechanical properties not observed in any
other engineering material known till date. However, they exhibit poor ductility and little or no
toughness which make them brittle and they fail catastrophically under tensile loading. Exact
explanation of this behaviour is difficult, and a lot of expensive experimentation is needed before
conclusive results could be drawn. In present study, a theoretical approach has been presented aimed
at solving this problem. A detailed mathematical model has been developed to describe solidification
phenomena in zirconium based bulk metallic glass matrix composites during additive manufacturing. It
precisely models and predicts solidification parameters related to microscale solute diffusion (mass
transfer) and capillary action in these rapidly solidifying sluggish slurries. Programming and simulation
of model is performed in MATLAB®. Results show that the use of temperature dependent
thermophysical properties yields a synergic effect for multitude improvement and refinement simulation
results. Simulated values proved out to be in good agreement with prior simulated and experimental
results. There is significant effect of initial metal temperature, composition, type of alloying elements,
temperature gradient and thermo-physical properties on final microstructure developed as a result of
heat and mass transfer phenomena.