Metallic Glass Structures for Mechanical-Energy-Dissipation Purpose: A Review

Metallic glasses (MGs), a new class of advanced structural materials with extraordinary mechanical properties, such as high strength approaching the theoretical value and an elastic limit several times larger than the conventional metals, are being used to develop cellular structures with excellent mechanical-energy-dissipation performance. In this paper, the research progress on the development of MG structures for energy-dissipation applications is reviewed, including MG foams, MG honeycombs, cellular MGs with macroscopic cellular structures, microscopic MG lattice structures and kirigami MG structures. MG structures not only have high plastic energy absorption capacity superior to conventional cellular metals, but also demonstrate great potential for storing the elastic energy during cyclic loading. The deformation behavior as well as the mechanisms for the excellent energy-dissipation performance of varying kinds MG structures is compared and discussed. Suggestions on the future development/optimization of MG structures for enhanced energy-dissipation performance are proposed, which can be helpful for exploring the widespread structural-application of MGs.