High Temperature Performance of Spark Plasma Sintered W0.5(TaTiVCr)0.5 Alloy

Abstract

The phase stability, compressive strength, and tribology of tungsten alloy containing low activation elements, W0.5(TaTiVCr)0.5, at elevated temperature up to 1400 °C were investigated. The spark plasma sintered W0.5(TaTiVCr)0.5 alloy showed body centered cubic (BCC) structure, which was stable up to 1400 °C using in-situ high temperature XRD analysis and did not show formation of secondary phases. The W0.5(TaTiVCr)0.5 alloy showed exceptionally high compressive yield strength of 1136 ± 40 MPa, 830 ± 60 MPa and 425 ± 15 MPa at 1000 °C, 1200 °C and 1400 °C, respectively. The high temperature tribology at 400 °C showed an average coefficient of friction (COF) and low wear rate of 0.55 and 1.37 × 10−5 mm3/Nm, respectively. The superior compressive strength and wear resistance properties were attributed to the solid solution strengthening of the alloy. The low activation composition, high phase stability, superior high temperature strength, and good wear resistance at 400 °C of W0.5(TaTiVCr)0.5 suggest its potential utilization in extreme applications such as plasma facing materials, rocket nozzles and industrial tooling.