Effect of tungsten content on microstructure and quasi-static tensile fracture characteristics of rapidly hot-extruded W–Ni–Fe alloys

Abstract Tungsten heavy alloys (WHAs) with three different compositions (90W–7Ni–3Fe, 93W–4.9Ni–2.1Fe and 95W–3.5Ni–1.5Fe, wt.%) were heavily deformed by one-pass rapid hot extrusion at 1100 °C with an extrusion speed of ~ 100 mm/s and an extrusion ratio of ~ 3.33:1. The influence of tungsten content on the microstructure and tensile fracture characteristics of the as-extruded alloys was investigated in detail. The results show that the tungsten particles in the as-extruded 95W have the largest shape factor compared to the as-extruded 90W and 93W alloys and this implies that the tungsten particles in the as-extruded 95W alloy were subjected to the heaviest plastic deformation. In addition, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and hardness (HRC) are significantly improved after rapid hot extrusion. The as-extruded 95W alloy processes the highest strength (1455 MPa) and hardness (HRC40) but the lowest elongation (5%), followed by the as-extruded 93W (UTS1390MPa; HRC39; 7%) and 90W alloys (UTS1260MPa; HRC36; 10%). The fracture morphology shows the distinct fracture features between the as-sintered alloys and the as-extruded alloys. For the as-sintered alloys, the fracture modes are various while transgranular cleavage of tungsten particles is the main characteristic in the as-extruded alloy. Meanwhile, the fracture modes of the three as-extruded alloys vary slightly with the tungsten content. TEM bright field images indicate that many lath-like subgrains with the width of 150–500 nm are present in the three as-extruded alloys, particularly in the as-extruded 93W and 95W alloys. Furthermore, the dislocations are absent in the γ-(Ni, Fe) phase. This means that dynamic recovery–recrystallization process took place during rapid hot extrusion.