A new idea of modeling shear band in metallic glass based on the concept of distributed dislocation

• A new idea of modeling shear band in metallic glasses is proposed. • Theoretical solutions of complex-shaped deformed specimens are obtained. • FE simulation based on constitutive model is applied to simulate shear bands. • Shear band morphology by theoretical modeling is consistent with FE simulations. Shear bands are closely linked with the plasticity and fracture behaviors of metallic glasses (MGs). This work proposes a new idea to predict shear bands by continuously distributed dislocations. The dislocations are unreal and used to model the plastic deformation of shear band. The possible positions of shear band initiation are determined based on the elastic stress field, and the direction and length of shear band propagation are determined by the distributed dislocation technique. Finite element simulations based on constitutive model are carried out to compare with the theoretical modeling. Two examples are considered, i.e., shear bands near a void and a notch under tensile loading. The results show that the theoretically predicted shear band morphology is well consistent with the finite element simulations, which verifies the validation of using distributed dislocations to predict shear bands. This work provides a new way to model shear band, and it has potential applications in predicting shear band morphology and fracture behaviors in MGs.