Book Description

A study was undertaken to determine the effects of the interstitial impurities oxygen and carbon on the mechanical properties of polycrystalline tungsten and high-purity tungsten single crystals. Results of tensile tests showed that additions of both oxygen and carbon to polycrystalline tungsten produced a marked increase in the ductile to brittle transition temperature. Oxygen and carbon produced a much smaller increase in the transition temperature of the single-crystal specimens compared with equivalent amounts of impurities in the polycrystalline specimens. Addition of oxygen to polycrystalline tungsten lowered both the ultimate tensile strength and the yield strength, but had no measurable effect on the strength properties of single-crystal specimens. Carbon additions to both polycrystalline and single-crystal specimens did not affect the ultimate tensile strength; however, a large increase in the yield strength resulted. The results suggest that oxygen embrittlement in tungsten is caused by grain-boundary segregation, while carbon embrittlement results from an interaction between carbon atoms and dislocations within the tungsten lattice.