Stress-induced amorphization as a transformation plasticity mechanism demonstrated in forsterite

Although stress-induced amorphization has recently been identified as a new and distinctive plasticity mechanism, a formal framework for its systematic application in materials engineering is still lacking. In this study, we establish that stress-induced amorphization in Mg2SiO4 forsterite exhibits all the key features of phase transformation plasticity, a well-known phenomenon that has enabled the development of high-performance materials. By analogy with the Transformation-Induced Plasticity (TRIP) effect, we introduce the concept of amorphous-TRIP (a-TRIP). We demonstrate that the a-TRIP features, in particular the orientation effect of stress-induced amorphization (particularly strong in forsterite), can be exploited to design materials with enhanced toughness, a notable advance for a class of materials traditionally limited by brittle behavior. Stress-induced amorphization has been observed in some systems as a plasticity mechanism. Here, simulations and microscopy reveal that stress-induced amorphization in forsterite exhibits the features of phase transformation plasticity.