Institute of Metals Division - Damping Measurements on Single-Crystal Molybdenum (TN)

MARINGER and schwopel have investigated the internal friction of high-purity molybdenum. After light tensile deformation, they observed internal-friction peaks at about 230° to 290°C, 310" to 370°C, and 820° to 870°C, which they have attributed to the interstitials carbon and nitrogen, and to stress relaxation across grain boundaries, respectively. The electron-beam melting technique has been successfully applied to refractory metals including molybdenum. By this technique single crystals and higher-purity levels than those of commercial molybdenum are readily obtained. Since electron-beam processed molybdenum possesses such desirable qualities, it seems reasonable to determine: u) if internal-friction peaks do exist in these single crystals, and b) if so, whether or not these peaks can possibly be attributed to the motion of specific interstitials. The molybdenum crystal used in this investigation received four melting passes in the electron-beam furnace. This crystal was about 11 in. long and had an orientation 4 deg from the [loo]. The process of making wire consisted of grinding the crystal rod to a diameter of 0.040 in. and then electropolishing to a final diameter of 0.030 in. Since Maringer and schwopel have indicated that the peak at 230" to 290°C may be due to the presence of carbon, the wire was cut into two equal lengths and one length was carburized prior to the internal-friction measurements. The critical condition necessary for the controlled addition of carbon proved to be a difficult problem. Therefore, a simpler nonequilibrium method was used. This consisted of carburizing at 2000°C in graphite powder to obtain a case, annealing at higher temperatures in vacuum to partially dissolve carbon into the molybdenum, and then removing the remaining case by dissolving it elec-trolytically. After this treatment, metallographic examination of a small section of the specimen revealed carbides in the matrix. Vacuum fusion and carbon analyses for both the virgin (as melted) and carburized specimens are given in Table I. Internal-friction measurements of these specimens were conducted in an apparatus of conventional