The role of vanadium additive in the activated sintering and shrinkage rate of tungsten-vanadium alloys

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a common and effective way to fabricate tungsten-based materials for preliminary investigations of their application in fusion reactor. The selection of doping materials and their appropriate concentration in tungsten is important for activated consolidation and to improve the shrinkage rate during the sintering process. The impact of vanadium concentration on the shrinkage rate of tungsten-vanadium (W-V) alloys has been studied in this work. Improvement in the shrinkage rate and mechanical strength of W-V alloys has been achieved by increasing the V concentration. The residual porosity was gradually decreased and the activated sintering conditions got better with the increase of V concentration. The saturation of shrinkage rate has been found at 1550°C for W-10 wt.%V.