Bulk metallic glasses exhibit unique viscoplastic flow behavior within their supercooled liquid region. Their high-temperature deformation mechanisms diverge markedly from the highly localized deformation at room temperature. This contrast offers a critical window for investigating their compressive flow models and assessing their forming potential. This study aims to systematically reveal the high-temperature compressive flow behavior of bulk metallic glasses within the supercooled liquid region and to establish a corresponding flow model. Through constant strain rate high-temperature compression experiments conducted on Zr56Co28Al16 bulk metallic glass within its supercooled liquid region, the variations in flow stress, crystallinity, and surface deformation characteristics with temperature were systematically investigated. The results indicate that the compressive behavior of the bulk metallic glass exhibits significant temperature dependence within this temperature range. The compressive strength decreased from 689 MPa at 487 °C to 330 MPa at 507 °C, and then increased to 435 MPa at 527 °C. The angle between the fracture/bulging direction and the loading direction increased from 45° at 487 °C to 88° at 507 °C, and then decreased to 60° at 527 °C. The shear band average spacing increased from 1.797 μm at 487 °C to 2.060 μm at 507 °C, and then decreased to 1.189 μm at 527 °C. These results consistently indicate that the plastic deformability is optimal at a compression temperature of around 510 °C. By integrating the analysis of mechanical curves and morphological characteristics, the applicability of three deformation mechanisms was evaluated: highly localized shear banding, homogeneous viscoplastic flow, and dynamic structural relaxation hardening. A constitutive relationship between compressive strength and temperature was established, which accurately describes their correlation. Simultaneously, it reveals that the dominant deformation mechanism evolves through highly localized shear banding and homogeneous viscoplastic flow, ultimately transforming into dynamic structural relaxation hardening as the temperature increases. This study provides theoretical guidance for predicting the compressive flow behavior of bulk metallic glasses in the supercooled liquid region and offers critical model support for precisely controlling their thermoplastic forming processes.
Li et al. (2026) studied this question.