Effect of Spark Plasma Sintering temperature on microstructure and properties of Nb-Si multi-element alloy
Nb-16Si-10Mo and Nb-16Si-10Mo-10Ti alloys were prepared by Spark Plasma Sintering(SPS)tech-nique.The effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure and properties of the two alloys was analyzed.The results show that Nb-16Si-10Mo alloy is composed of three phases:Nbss,Nb3Si and Nb5Si3,while Nb-16Si-10Mo-10Ti alloy is composed of three phases:Nbss,Nb5Si3 and Tiss,and the densities of both alloys are above 99.4%.With the increase of sintering temperature,the Vickers hardness and compressive strength of the two alloys first increase and then decrease,while the bending strength and fracture toughness gradually decrease.With the addition of Ti element,the fracture morphology appears dimple characteristics,and the fracture mode changes from brittle fracture to composite fracture,and the Vickers hardness and compressive strength of the al-loy are reduced at various sintering temperatures,while the bending strength and fracture toughness are in-creased.