Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Molecular dynamics simulations are employed to study the mechanical properties of nanoporous CuxZr1-x metallic glasses (MGs) with five different compositions, x = 0.28, 0.36, 0.50, 0.64, and 0.72, and porosity in the range 0.1 < ϕ < 0.7. Results from tensile loading simulations indicate a strong dependence of Young's modulus, E, and Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) on porosity and composition. By increasing the porosity from ϕ = 0.1 to ϕ = 0.7, the topology of the nanoporous MG shifts from closed cell to open-cell bicontinuous. The change in nanoporous topology enables a brittle-to-ductile transition in deformation and failure mechanisms from a single critical shear band to necking and rupture of ligaments. Genetic Programming (GP) is employed to find scaling laws for E and UTS as a function of porosity and composition. A comparison of the GP-derived scaling laws against existing relationships shows that the GP method is able to uncover expressions that can predict accurately both the values of E and UTS in the whole range of porosity and compositions considered.