Investigation on Compressional Properties and Hardness of WC Reinforced Steels

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Hadi Nasiri ¹

Hamid Sazegaran ²

Ali mohamad Naserian-Nik ³

¹ Department of Materials Engineering, Birjand University of Technology, Birjand, Iran

² Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Science, Quchan University of Technology, Quchan, Iran:

³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Advanced Technologies, Quchan University of Technology, Quchan, Iran.

10.22067/jmme.2025.90424.1163

Abstract

In this work, using the powder metallurgy method, tungsten carbide particles (0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 wt.%) were added as reinforcement to the steel containing 0.5 wt.% of carbon. It is worth noting that 2 wt.% of iron phosphide was added to the prepared powder mixture in order to create a liquid phase sintering mechanism. Density, porosity content, compressive properties, and hardness of reinforced specimens were experimentally examined. In addition, the microstructure of sintered steels was studied using optical and scanning electron microscopes. The obtained results indicate the density is between 6927.9 to 7101.1 kg/m3 and the porosity is between 17.21 to 19.41%. The microstructure of the steel specimens contains ferrite and pearlite. In the specimen containing 4 wt.% of tungsten carbide, the agglomeration of reinforcing particles in the steel matrix was observed in the SEM micrographs. Also, it can be seen, the hardness, elasticity coefficient, yield strength and compressive strength of reinforced steels increased by adding the amount of tungsten carbide up to 2 wt.%. After that the mentioned properties showed a decreasing trend, which is due to changes in the percentage of porosity and occurrence of agglomeration phenomenon. Another reason for such effect is the prevention of reinforcement particles from condensing during the compression process for specimen with 4 wt.% of tungsten carbide.

Keywords

Powder metallurgy

WC particles

Compressional properties

Hardness

Microstructure

Subjects

• Advanced Materials

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