Experimental determination of higher order elastic moduli of metallic glasses

We studied the effect of uniaxial compression on longitudinal and transverse ultrasonic resonant vibrations (8–10 MHz) in Zr₅₇Nb₅Al₁₀Cu_15.4Ni_12.6 (VIT106) metallic glass in the initial and relaxed states. On this basis, the 3rd- and 4th-order elastic moduli are determined. We also corrected previous calculations of the parameters of sound propagation vs the applied load and re-examined earlier estimates of higher order elastic moduli in other metallic glasses. To our knowledge, any other estimates of the 4rd-order elastic moduli of metallic glasses based on experimental observations are absent in the literature. The obtained data are discussed in the framework of available theoretical predictions.