Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of W-Al₂O₃ Alloy Plates Prepared by a Wet Chemical Method and Rolling Process

Abstract

The uneven distribution and large size of the second phase weakens the effect of dispersion strengthening in ODS-W alloys. In this article, the W-Al2O3 composite powders were fabricated using a wet chemical method, resulting in a finer powder and uniformly dispersed Al2O3 particles in the tungsten-based alloy. The particle size of the pure tungsten powder is 1.05 μm and the particle size of W-0.2 wt.%Al2O3 is 727 nm. Subsequently, the W-Al2O3 alloy plates were successfully obtained by induction sintering and rolling processes. Al2O3 effectively refined grain size from powder-making to sintering. The micro-hardness of the tungsten alloy plates reached 512 HV0.2, which is 43.7% higher than that of pure tungsten plates. The nano-hardness reached 14.2 GPa, which is 24.1% higher than that of the pure tungsten plate; the compressive strength reached 2224 MPa, which is 37.2% higher than that of the pure tungsten.

Keywords

• ODS-W
• wet chemical method
• Al₂O₃-reinforced
• tungsten alloy plates