Deformation Behaviour of Tungsten-Copper Composites

Abstract

The effects of cold working and annealing at temperatures of up to 700° C on a series of binary tungsten- copper composites was studied. Strength was increased with increasing cold work and tungsten content. The increases in hardness of the composites, for deformations up to 25%, could be modelled by the assumption that deformation was substantially confined to the copper phase. Confirmation of this was provided by the lack of elongation of the tungsten particles after deformation and the hardness of the composites, annealed at 450° C, which showed that there was no increase in hardness attributable to cold working of the tungsten. This cold worked tungsten would not undergo recrystallisation at such low annealing temperatures