Fabrication of Zr-based bulk metallic glass lattice structure with high specific strength by laser powder bed fusion

Metallic glass (MG) lattice structure is expected to exhibit high specific strength, high impact resistance, and corrosion resistance due to the combined advantages of MG and lattice structure. Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) was employed to prepare the MG lattice structure in the present research. Firstly, the LPBF processing parameters were optimized to prepare nearly full amorphous state alloy (Zr 41.2 Ti 13.8 Cu 12.5 Ni 10 Be 22.5 ) accompany with the high relative density. Under the optimal parameters, the LPBF-processed MG rod with Φ = 1 mm could achieve a high strength of 1428 MP and a plastic deformation strain of ∼2 %. Two kinds of MG lattice structures including body-centered cubic (BCC) and thin wall (TW) were fabricated, and their microstructure characters and mechanical properties were investigated. The LPBF-processed MG TW lattice structure exhibited a more faithful reproduction of the designed model than the BCC lattice structure. Remarkable, TW lattice structure showed relatively higher specific strength (2.55×10 5 Nm/kg) and obvious plastic deformation strain (2 %) compared with the BCC lattice structure, which could be attributed to the less tension stress distribution and the multiplication of shear bands within the thin wall intersection regions under compression load.