Improving the Fracture Toughness and Ductility of Liquid-Phase Sintered WNiFe Tungsten Heavy Alloys by High-Temperature Annealing.

ABSTRACT: Tungsten heavy alloys (WHAs) are candidates for use in fusion reactor divertors. Here, we characterize liquid-phase sintered WHAs with 90, 92.5, 95, and 97 (wt.%) tungsten (W), with a balance of a 0.7Ni-0.3Fe ductile phase. These WHAs show remarkable room temperature (RT) fracture toughness at the maximum load, K_Jm, ranging from ≈ 38 to 107 MPa√m, compared to a monolithic W toughness of ≈ 8 MPa√m. In most cases, the fracture of WHAs occurs through stable crack tearing. However, the 97W WHA has the lowest toughness and fracture elastically in all but the smallest specimens. As lower Ni contents are desirable for fusion application, we explore the potential for improving the ductility and K_Jm of WHAs using vacuum annealing at 1300 °C for 24 h. The microstructural observ

SUBMITTER: Alam ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9917838 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature