Experiment study on the hot-shock consolidation of tungsten powder

Experiments have been conducted to consolidate tungsten powder using hot-shock consolidation technique combining with underwater shock wave. An exothermic mixture (TiO₂-C-Al-Fe₂O₃) was ignited by an electric wire coil to release a large mount of heat via a self-propagating high-temperature synthesis reaction which was used to pre-heat the sample powder. As getting the needed isothermal temperature, the powder was subsequently consolidated by shock wave generated by explosion of nitro methane, with a detonation velocity of 6.3 km/s and a detonation pressure of 11.9 GPa. The density and Vickers micro-hardness of the consolidated sample were determined and its microstructure was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). High-density tungsten samples were obtained by optimizing the experimental conditions. In this paper, the relative density and hardness of the recovered sample are 96.5% and 670 HV, respectively.