Prediction of thermal conductivity of 93WNiFe alloys in sintering process via finite element analysis

Tungsten heavy alloys are widely used in aerospace and microelectronics due to their excellent properties such as high melting point, high strength at high temperature and low coefficient of thermal expansion. Large refractory metal parts, especially large-size parts, have complex sintering processes, uneven sintering processes, and high production trial and error costs. Numerical simulation applied to the sintering process can play a good role in reducing consumption and increasing efficiency. Thermal conductivity (also known as thermal conductivity) as an important material thermophysical parameter required for numerical simulation of the constitutive equations, but the existing thermal conductivity measurement equipment and methods can not achieve the measurement of refractory metals at high sintering temperatures section. This paper is based on the use of finite element method to predict the thermal conductivity of 93W-Ni-Fe high specific gravity alloy refractory metal billet formed by cold isostatic pressing at different temperatures in the sintering process, and the prediction results are in good agreement with the experimental results, which indicates that the finite element method can achieve the ability to accurately predict the thermal conductivity of tungsten heavy alloys.