Experimental determination of higher order elastic moduli of metallic glasses

•Effect of applied stress on ultrasound vibrations of VIT106 glass is studied.•3rd- and 4th-order elastic moduli are calculated.•Influence of structural relaxation is investigated.•Earlier estimates of higher order moduli in other metallic glasses are re-examined.•Comparison with available theoretical predictions is performed. We studied the effect of uniaxial compression on longitudinal and transverse ultrasonic resonant vibrations (8–10 MHz) in Zr57Nb5Al10Cu15.4Ni12.6 (VIT106) metallic glass in the initial and relaxed states. On this basis, the 3rd- and 4th-order elastic moduli are determined. We also corrected previous calculations of the parameters of sound propagation vs the applied load and re-examined earlier estimates of higher order elastic moduli in other metallic glasses. To our knowledge, any other estimates of the 4rd-order elastic moduli of metallic glasses based on experimental observations are absent in the literature. The obtained data are discussed in the framework of available theoretical predictions.