Microstructural Characterization of Cold Sprayed Copper-Tungsten Metal Matrix Composites

A Copper coated Tungsten powder was cold sprayed to prepare high volume fraction Copper-Tungsten coatings. Different Tungsten loadings were explored by varying the copper content of the powder. This allowed the maximum Tungsten loading in the composite to be explored. Microstructural characterization of the powders and coatings will be discussed. Copper and Tungsten grain sizes before and after spraying are compared to understand deformation in each phase.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000