Wear resistance, hardness, and microstructure of carbide dispersion strengthened high-entropy alloys

Abstract

(CrFeCoNi) high-entropy alloy (HEA) was reinforced with various contents of WC particles from 5 wt% to 20 wt%, and prepared by powder metallurgy. The mixed powders were compacted under 700 MPa and then sintered at 1200 ° C in a vacuum furnace for 90 min. Density, phase composition, and microstructure of sintered samples were investigated. Hardness, compressive strength, wear resistance and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) were estimated. The results revealed the improvement of the density with the addition of WC. XRD results revealed the formation of new FCC chromium carbide phases. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results show a good distribution of the carbide phases over the alloy matrix. The CTE was decreased gradually by increasing the WC content. Compressive strength was improved by WC addition. A mathematical model was established to predict the behavior of the strength of the HEA samples. The hardness of the investigated HEAs was increased gradually with the increasing of WC content about 20.35%. Also, the wear rate of HEA without WC is 1.70×10⁻⁴ mm³/(N·m), which is approximately 4.5 times the wear rate of 20 wt% WC HEA (3.81×10⁻⁵ mm³/(N·m)), which means that wear resistance was significantly improved with the increase of WC content.

Keywords

high-entropy alloy / powder metallurgy / micro-hardness / microstructure / wear resistance / compression / regression analysis

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