Ductile-phase toughening in V-V3Si in situ composites

Abstract

This article describes the room-temperature fracture behavior of ductile-phase-toughened V-V3Si in situ composites that were produced by arc melting (AM), cold-crucible induction melting (IM), and cold-crucible directional solidification (DS). Composites were produced containing a wide range of microstructures, interstitial impurity contents, and volume fractions of the ductile V-Si solid solution phase, denoted (V). The fracture toughness of these composites generally increases as the volume fraction of (V) increases, but is strongly influenced by the microstructure, the mechanical properties of the component phases, and the crystallographic orientation of the (V) phase with respect to the maximum principal stress direction. For eutectic composites that have a (V) volume fraction of about 50 pct, the fracture toughness increases with decreasing “effective” interstitial impurity concentration, [I]=[N]+1.33 [O]+9 [H]. As [I] decreases from 1400 ppm (AM) to 400 ppm (IM), the fracture toughness of the eutectic composites increases from 10 to 20 MPa √m. Further, the fracture toughness of the DS eutectic composites is greater when the crack propagation direction is perpendicular, rather than parallel, to the composite growth direction. These results are discussed in light of conventional ductile-phase bridging theories, which alone cannot fully explain the fracture toughness of V-Si in situ composites.