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Effect of oxidation on thermal fatigue behavior of cast tungsten carbide particle/steel substrate surface composite

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Abstract

Cast tungsten carbide is widely used to reinforce iron or steel substrate surface composites to meet the demands of harsh wear environments due to its extremely high hardness and excellent wettability with molten steel. Cast tungsten carbide particle/steel matrix surface composites have demonstrated great potential development in applications under the abrasive working condition. The thermal shock test was used to investigate the fatigue behavior of the composites fabricated by vacuum evaporative pattern casting technique at different temperatures. At elevated temperatures, the fatigue behavior of the composites was influenced by the oxidation of tungsten carbide, producing WO3. Thermodynamic calculations showed that the W2C in the tungsten carbide particle was oxidized at an initial temperature of approximately 570 °C. The relationship between oxidation and thermal fatigue crack growth was investigated, and the results suggested that oxidation would become more significant with increasing thermal shock temperature. These findings provide a valuable guide for understanding and designing particle/steel substrate surface composites.

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Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51871116, 51501079, and 51561018). The experiments were designed by Zulai Li, Lei zhang, and Quan Shan, and performed by Yehua Jiang. The composites were fabricated by Zaifeng Zhou and Quan Shan. The oxidation tests were performed by Fan Gao. The manuscript was written by Quan Shan, Zulai Li, and Lei Zhang. Zulai Li and Lei Zhang are the corresponding authors of this research article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Material Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Quan Shan, Zaifeng Zhou, Zulai Li, Yehua Jiang, Fan Gao & Lei Zhang

  2. Department of Mechanic and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Quan Shan, Zaifeng Zhou, Zulai Li, Yehua Jiang, Fan Gao & Lei Zhang

Authors
  1. Quan Shan
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  2. Zaifeng Zhou
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  3. Zulai Li
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  4. Yehua Jiang
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  5. Fan Gao
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  6. Lei Zhang
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Correspondence to Quan Shan, Zulai Li or Lei Zhang.

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Shan, Q., Zhou, Z., Li, Z. et al. Effect of oxidation on thermal fatigue behavior of cast tungsten carbide particle/steel substrate surface composite. Journal of Materials Research 34, 1754–1761 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2019.83

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2019.83

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