Interpreting the change in shear band inclination angle in metallic glasses

Shear bands in metallic glasses subject to uniaxial loading such as tension and compression exhibit the inclination angle different from 45 degrees on the maximum resolved shear stress plane with respect to the loading axis. The cause is often attributed to the effective normal stress acting on the shear plane, which also suggests Coulomb-Mohr yield criterion for metallic glasses. We show here that this argument is conceptually ill justified. Instead, shear band inclination angle can be described by a simple model taking into consideration the volume dilatation and the pressure effects.