Evaluation of the elastic properties of bulk metallic glasses

The development of bulk metallic glasses as a prominent class of functional and structural materials has attracted considerable interest in the last years. One of the fundamental physical quantities necessary to describe the mechanical properties of the materials is the bulk modulus. In the present article, a simple method to estimate the bulk modulus and its pressure derivative is proposed. It is shown that these quantities can be estimated from the values of the constituent elements and their compositions. Comparison with measured data shows good agreement. The physical background of the method is discussed based on the jellium model of metals.