Figure 4
Mechanical behavior. Compressive properties of ice-templated and powder-metallurgy W-Cu composites under compression. Panel (a) shows a schematic illustration and photographs of the compressive tests of an ice-templated W-Cu composite with 43 vol.% Cu. (b) Experimental stress-strain curves of W-Cu composites with various Cu volume fractions. All ice-templated composites, measured with lamellae parallel to the applied stress, feature a region of plastic instability after the yield strength is reached. The compressive strength is labelled σcs as an example for a composite with 43 vol.% Cu. (c) Optical micrograph image of an ice-templated W-Cu composite (66 vol.% Cu) after compressive testing affirming kink band formation as failure mode. The zoomed-in view highlights the nearly uniform misorientation of the composite within the kink band. Panel (d) compares the measured compressive strength of (Fig. 4)b with theoretical predictions based on a simple rule of mixture (Eq. 1) and compressive strength measured for fibre-reinforced W-Cu composite tested in the fiber direction, from ref.9.
