Abstract

W-Cu composite has been used for the applications requiring both high strength, good thermal and electrical conductivity. A graded combination of W and Cu will reduce thermal stress concerned with heat conduction, maintaining good thermal conductivity and high mechanical strength. In the present work, an attempt was made to fabricate continuous W-Cu FGM by preparing the graded porous structure of W skeleton using spark plasma sintering (SPS) process followed by infiltrating Cu. The graded porous structure was prepared at 1500°C for 60s under pressure of 15MPa by SPS process using a graphite mold with varying crr)ss section in the longitudinal direction. Infiltration of Cu was performed at 1150°C for 1 hour under H_2. W-Cu composite with graded Cu composition of 14 to 27 wt％ was finally prepared. In this process the gradient of composition could be conveniently controlled by varying the gradient of cross sectional area of graphite mold, temperature and pressure.

• Keywords: W-Cu composite;Spark plasma sintering;Functionally graded materials;Infiltration;