  The effect of cyclic loading on relaxation dynamics and mechanical properties
of metallic glasses is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. We
consider the Kob-Andersen three-dimensional binary mixture rapidly cooled
across the glass transition and subjected to thousands of tension-compression
cycles in the elastic range. It was found that during cyclic loading at
constant pressure, the system is relocated to progressively lower levels of the
potential energy, thus promoting greater densification and higher strength.
Furthermore, with increasing stress amplitude, the average glass density
increases and the minimum of the potential energy becomes deeper, while the
elastic modulus is reduced. The typical size of clusters of atoms with large
nonaffine displacements becomes smaller over consecutive cycles, which
correlates with the gradual decrease in the potential energy. These results are
important for thermomechanical processing of metallic glasses with improved
mechanical properties.
