Effect of high temperature swaging and annealing on the mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of W–Y2O3

Abstract The mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of W–1.0 wt%Y2O3 (WY10) alloys prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) as well as ordinary sintering followed by swaging and annealing treatment, respectively, were investigated. The grains in the swaged WY10 are of round-bar shape with average diameter and length of 4.6 and 26.7 μm, respectively, which keep stable even after being annealed for 1 h at 1300 °C. The ductile–brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of swaged and annealed WY10 is about 200 °C, much lower than that of WY10 prepared by SPS method (∼500 °C). Annealing significantly improves thermal conductivity from 146 to 198 W/m K at room temperature. In addition, the total elongation is raised by 5.7 times than that of the unannealed one. The results indicate that the strength, ductility and thermal conductivity can be greatly improved by swaging and subsequent annealing.