Thermal shock behavior of tungsten based alloys manufactured via powder injection molding

The focus of this work is to address mechanical strength and recrystallization resistance through thermal shock investigation of newly developed fine grained tungsten base materials (i.e., pure tungsten and two doped tungsten-grades incorporating either 1 or 5 vol%Y2O3 produced via powder injection molding (PIM)). Therefore, repetitive ELM (edge localized mode)-like loads (n = 100) were applied by means of an electron beam at various temperatures between RT and 400 °C (673 K) with a pulse duration of 1 ms and an absorbed power density of up to 1.13 GW/m2. The microstructural properties, e.g. grain size, and Y2O3-particle distribution, were correlated with crack formation at a certain temperature, the crack propagation direction towards the bulk material and the amount of plastic deformation/surface roughening at higher temperatures. Thereby, it was shown that W-1 vol%Y2O3 outperformed all other investigated grades and reference materials from literature.