Correlation between fractal dimension and strength of brittle bulk metallic glasses

In this paper, the strength of brittle bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) was investigated, and a corresponding theoretical model was proposed by modification of Griffith theory using fractal geometry. It was shown that the fracture energy and strength of brittle BMGs not only are related to the plastic zone size, the length scales of atomic order range and the surface energy but also has significant relationship with the fractal dimension in fracture surface. The strength of typical BMGs was also calculated by our improved model, which is in excellent agreement with the experimental data. This study provides a compelling approach for investigating and understanding the high strength of BMGs.