Abstract:
The plasticity of glasses under compressive and shear stresses is governed by 2 main mechanisms: densification and shear flow. The relative contribution of each of these mechanisms depends on the glass structure and its atomic packing density. It was shown that the decrease of loading and hence strain rate contribute to the intensification of both shear flow and densification processes under indentation of phosphate glass [1]. In the present work we have investigated the influence of the loading rate on the relaxation processes during holding under the load and during unloading period.