| Abstract: | Common silicate glasses are among the most brittle of the materials. However,
on warming beyond the glass transition temperature $T_g$ glass transforms into
one of the most plastic known materials. Bulk metallic glasses exhibit similar phenomenology,
indicating that it rests on the disordered structure instead on the nature
of the chemical bonds. The micromechanics of a solid with bulk amorphous structure
is examined in order to determine the most basic conditions the system must satisfy
to be able of plastic flow. The equations for the macroscopic flow, consistent with the
constrictions imposed at the atomic scale, prove that a randomly structured bulk material
must be either a brittle solid or a liquid, but not a ductile solid. The theory permits
to identify a single parameter determining the difference between the brittle solid and
the liquid. However, the system is able of perfect ductility if the plastic flow proceeds
in two dimensional plane layers that concentrate the strain. Insight is gained on the
nature of the glass transition, and the phase occurring between glass transition and
melting. |
