Investigating the Tribology, Vickers Hardness and Microstructure of Ti20-Al20-V20-Fe20-Ni20 HEA Developed with SPS

High-entropy alloy (HEA) has gained considerable interest in the research community because of its essential properties over conventional alloys. Hence, this work was aimed at development of Ti20-Al20-V20-Fe20-Ni20 HEA with the objective of determining its suitability in high-strength applications. Spark plasma sintering (SPS) was the fabrication technique used. SEM-EDS and XRD were used in the characterization, while nanoindenter and tribometer were used in the Vickers hardness and wear testing, respectively. Results obtained showed that sintering temperature of 1100 celcius was the optimal temperature. The developed HEA had Vickers hardness improvement of 130% over Ti6Al4V alloy, wear rate improvement of 130% over Inconel 718 alloy and 666% over TiAl alloy. It was concluded that the developed HEA can perform much better than the famous Ti6Al4V superalloy in high-temperature/strength applications.