Formation of products upon ignition, combustion and melting of mixtures of high-entropy alloy FeNiCoCrCu with titanium and carbon

Abstract

The dependence of the ignition temperature, combustion rate and composition of the resulting products on the concentration of Ti + C in mixtures with powder of a high-entropy alloy (HEA) FeNiCoCrCu and the initial mixture of metals forming it (MIX) has been studied. HEA was obtained by mechanical activation (MA) of a mixture of metal powders in argon. At the melting temperature, the high-entropy FeNiCoCrCu alloy decomposes into several phases, but the basis of the HEA alloy, as well as the alloy obtained by melting and crystallizing MIX, is a 5-component phase with an average formula Cu1.2Fe1.4Ni1.4Co1.4Cr. In addition, 5, 4, and 3-component phases with averaged formulas Cu2Ni2Co2Fe2Cr, Cu3Ni3Co2.9Fe2.5Cr, Cu4.8Ni4.5Co4.6Fe4.2Cr, Cu40Fe2Ni4Co2C, Cr12.5Fe3.2Co2.6Ni and Co3.2 Fe3,5 Cr are present in small amounts in the binder. Experiments on the ignition and combustion of mixtures of MIX and HEA with Ti + C were carried out in argon at atmospheric pressure. The combustion rate, ignition temperature, and maximum temperature reached in the thermal explosion of MIX and HEA mixtures with Ti + C increase with increasing Ti + C concentration. Due to the low exothermicity of the mixtures, the experiments were carried out at an initial temperature of 500 °С. At this initial temperature, the combustion limit of the samples occurs when the Ti + C concentration in the HEA and MIX mixtures is less than 30 %. Based on the results of scanning electron microscopy, the volume concentration of the number of titanium carbide (TiC) particles in molten samples was calculated. In an alloy with a HEA binder, the number of TiC particles per unit volume is 1.5-3.0 times greater than in an alloy with a MIX binder, and their size is correspondingly smaller. With an increase in the concentration of Ti + C from 30 to 40 % in a mixture with HEA, the number of TiC particles per unit volume decreases. In a mixture with MIX, the number of TiC particles per unit volume passes through a minimum. This is due to two opposite processes: on the one hand, the probability of the generation of TiC particles increases, on the other hand, their coagulation occurs.