Recent Progress of Oxide/Carbide Dispersion Strengthened W-Based Materials

Abstract

Tungsten (W) plays an important role in the defense industry, aerospace and nuclear industry due to its excellent properties such as high melting point (3410.), high density (19.35 g/cm(3)), high hardness, high elastic modulus, high thermal conductivity, low expansion coefficient and low vapor pressure. However, its disadvantages, such as low temperature brittleness (ductile brittle transition temperature usually above 400 degrees C), low tensile strength, recrystallization embrittlement, high thermal load induced cracking and irradiation embrittlement, affected seriously its processing and servicing performance. Focusing on these problems, carbides/oxide dispersion strengthened W alloys were studied widely. The mechanical properties and other service properties of W were significantly improved by nano scale carbide/oxide dispersion strengthening and microstructure optimization. This article mainly reviews carbide and oxide dispersion strengthening design and the corresponding W-based materials preparation, microstructure and properties of regulation and service performance evaluation, introduces the latest progress of the research and development of the authors' team, and looks forward to the future development trend and the problems to be solved.