Microstructure and mechanical properties of Nb-Si alloys fabricated by spark plasma sintering

This paper deals with microstructural evolutions and mechanical properties of Nb-Si binaries containing dual-phase Nb/Nb5Si3 with Nb to Nb5Si3 fraction ratios of 90:10,80:20,70:30 and 50:50,prepared by spark plasma sintering(SPS).Dense Nb/Nb5Si3 samples with a relative density larger than 99.5% were obtained by SPS processing.The SPS samples consist of the Nb and Nb5Si3 phases with less than 3% fraction of NbO oxide.Hv at room temperature,and compressive strength at 1150℃ and 1250 1C of the bulk SPS alloys increase monolithically by enhancing fraction of the stiffening Nb5Si3 phase.For example,0.2% yield strength,σ0.2,increases from 175 MPa to 420 MPa at 1150℃ and from 110 MPa to 280 MPa at 1250℃,when the Nb5Si3 fraction increases from 10% to 50%.It is interesting that the fracture toughness,KQ,of the bulk SPS samples seems not to be sensitive to phase fraction.Heat treatment,however,plays a key role on the KQ as compared with that of the as-sintered state,at the corresponding Nb5Si3 fraction and considerably improves the KQ by about 100% for samples with the Nb5Si3 fractions of 10%-30%,and by about 50% for the sample with 50% Nb5Si3 fraction.