Abstract
Quantitative measurements of the excess free volume in Pd40Cu30Ni10P20 and Cu55Zr30Ti10Pd5 metallic glasses during in situ isothermal annealing at various temperatures are used to identify physical parameters of structural relaxation in metallic glasses and to discuss proposed models describing this process. The free-volume model is found to provide a simple and predictive description for structural relaxation phenomena. We show that structural relaxation kinetics follows a second-order law in a satisfactory manner. The activation energy for relaxation is found to depend on annealing temperature and the extent of structural relaxation.