Microstructure and wear properties of spark plasma sintered 316L-30W composites

ABSTRACT

316L-30W composites were successfully fabricated via spark plasma sintering at 1550°C to evaluate their potential as the interlayer between W and 316L stainless steel in fusion reactors. The effect of holding time on the microstructure and its subsequent effects on the fracture morphology and wear properties of the composites were investigated. The results show that more W particles melted and reacted with 316L steel as the holding time increased from 1 to 5 min. The generation of voids was mainly caused by the differences in diffusivity and the coefficient of thermal expansion between W and 316L. The 316L-30W composite held for 3 min had a smaller and more stable friction coefficient, indicating that its interface was firmly bonded and homogeneous.

This paper is part of a thematic issue on Nuclear Materials.

KEYWORDS:

• 316L/W composite
• holding time
• microstructure
• particle-porosity clusters
• wear performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Key Deployment Projects of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KGZD-EW-T04) and the Scientific Research Starting Foundation for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars from the Ministry of Education of China.