Effective diffusion in cemented carbide systems : Geometrical effect of the labyrinth factor

• In cemented carbides the effective diffusivities are associated with the carbides acting as obstacles that increase the diffusion distance, thus altering the overall diffusion in the composite. From an industrial point of view, the prediction of the surface gradient formation is important to develop state-of-the-art cemented carbide cutting tools and require an understanding of the liquid binder diffusivities and the effective diffusion reduction at typical sintering temperatures where the binder is molten. Recently, a full description of the diffusivities in the liquid binder has become available and the focus of the present work is thus the effective diffusion reduction. Isotope diffusion couple experiments have been successfully performed to investigate the effective diffusion in a WC-Ni liquid binder-carbide composite material, i.e. a cemented carbide. The 58Ni isotope diffusion profiles have been measured with Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) and the results have been compared to DICTRA simulations using an updated kinetic database. The agreement between the experimental and simulated diffusion profiles is excellent showing that the theoretical geometrical limit, simulated with the upper Hashin-Shtrikman bound, is obeyed in simple cemented carbide systems. For complex cemented carbide systems, where gradient sintering is relevant, the effective diffusion is insufficiently explained by the geometrical reduction.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik -- Metallurgi och metalliska material (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering -- Metallurgy and Metallic Materials (hsv//eng)

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