Abstract
WMoNbTaV refractory high-entropy alloy (RHEA) is facing the contradiction between strength and plasticity at room temperature, which greatly restricts its processing, forming and subsequent engineering applications. In the present work, WMoNbTaV and WMoNbTaV with 1 mass% additions of m-ZrO2 (WMoNbTaV-1ZrO2) RHEAs were successfully prepared by ball milling and spark plasma sintering technologies. The grain refinement of the one phase body-centered cubic alloy by presence of m-ZrO2 is determined by microstructural analyses to be 31.5%. The yield strength, ultimate strength and fracture strain of WMoNbTaV-1ZrO2 are 2171.1 MPa, 2461.4 MPa and 12.7% respectively, which are surprisingly increased by 69.0%, 62.5% and 32.3%, in comparison with that of WMoNbTaV without m-ZrO2, respectively. More importantly, they are remarkably superior to the same alloy prepared by the vacuum arc-melting method. A model is presented to study the strengthening mechanism of WMoNbTaV-1ZrO2, and the theoretical calculation shows that the extraordinary high strength is mainly due to the inherent strength in the multi-principal element WMoNbTaV alloy and grain boundary strengthening caused by the addition of m-ZrO2 particles.
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