Institute of Metals Division - Void Formation in Tungsten Above 2800°C (TN)

THE violent outgassing of commercial tungsten and other refractory metals when melted in an electron beam zone refining apparatus1"3 is dealt with experimentally by one or both of two approaches. One is to provide a suitable emission current control1,2 the other is to purify the metal in the solid state before melting.4 The first of these is usually sufficient, but the authors chose also to investigate the source of the troublesome gases and to devise means of solid-state purification. Some further insights into the use of tungsten as a structural material at temperatures near its melting point were also revealed in the course of the work. One may speculate on the causes of gas formation in tungsten at high temperature by inferences from the literature and an examination of the impurities in commercial wire. Davenport5 observed microporosity in both tungsten and molybdenum filaments heated to several hundred degrees below their melting points. Studying the function of oxygen in molybdenum welds, Perry, Spacil, and wulff8 attributed similar porosity to the disproportionation of Moo2 to molybdenum metal and Moo3. Tungsten dioxide also disproportionates7 above 2000oC to yield WO3 vapor at considerable pressure. Commercial tungsten contains some 5 to 20 wt ppm O and a similar concentration of carbon depending on the details and precautions of processing. Therefore, evolution of CO is also a strong possibility as a source of gas at high temperatures. Furthermore, even for activities in the order of 0.01, it may be calculated that the pressure of CO at 3000°C would be over 4000 psi, which is in excess of the tensile strength of tungsten at this temperature.9,10 Powder metallurgy tungsten contains some 0.02 pet Fe and 0.002 to 0.005 pet of the elements Ni, Si, Al, Ca, Mn, Mg, and Mo; at temperatures over 2800°c, therefore, these elements will exhibit appreciable vapor pressure, though small compared to that of WO3 and CO. Some of these impurities may react to form high-pressure monoxides such as SiO and A10. Finally, dissolved and occluded nitrogen is an ever-present source of high-pressure gas. Commercial Type 218, General Electric filament wires, 0.025 in. diam, were heated by resistance in 10 -4 mm of Hg and in argon or hydrogen at pressures from 50 µ to atmospheric. For temperature determinations in vacuo, the Jones - Langmuir8 current-temperature relationship was employed. For gaseous atmospheres, the burn-out temperature was assumed to be the same as in vacuo so that a small, constant correction could be made for temperatures below burn-out conditions (i.e., local heating to failure). Several dozen experiments may be summarized by pointing out some structural observations. At 3050oC in 1 atm of A, porosity is very evident after 30 min, as shown in Fig. 1. For the section in Fig. 2, failure occurred 200°C below the melting point and many voids have grown in the grain bound-