The effect of sintering conditions and ZrN volume fraction on the mechanical properties of spark plasma sintered W/ZrN composites

In an effort to improve the room temperature mechanical properties of tungsten, W/ZrN composites were fabricated by high energy ball milling followed by spark plasma sintering at temperatures in a range of 1200–1700 °C under a pressure of 50 MPa. The effects of sintering conditions and ZrN volume fraction on the mechanical properties of the W/ZrN composites were studied and the results were compared to the properties of monolithic tungsten. The grain size of monolith tungsten and W/ZrN composites was found to increase with an increase in sintering temperature and time. In the case of the W/ZrN composites, ZrN particles led to an increase in the compressive strength of tungsten and a decrease in grain size. The increase in compressive strength of the composites was attributed to a reinforcement effect of ZrN particles as well as grain size refinement according to the Hall–Petch relation. Compressive strength of the composites increased with increasing ZrN content while the flexural strength decreased for samples with ZrN content exceeding 10 vol.%. This was attributed to the effects of ZrN agglomeration within the tungsten matrix.