Mechanical behavior of metallic glass reinforced nanostructured tungsten composites synthesized by spark plasma sintering

High volume percent (70 vol.%) and high-density (∼15.6 g/cm3) metallic glass reinforced nanostructured tungsten composites were fabricated by spark plasma sintering of mechanically milled powders. The nanostructured powders were synthesized by mechanical milling −45 μm tungsten and Hf-based metallic glass powders into composite particles that are comprised of 20–500 nm layers of tungsten and metallic glass. The nanostructured W composite shows shear fracture due to shear localization by compressive pressure. However, in contrast to single-phase metallic glass, some macroscopic plasticity during compression testing is observed and shear localization without decrease in plasticity occurs uniformly throughout the nano-grained tungsten and metallic glass phases in the sample obtained from sintered composite powders.