Spark plasma sintering for high-speed diffusion bonding of the ultrafine-grained near-α Ti–5Al–2V alloy with high strength and corrosion resistance for nuclear engineering

The paper demonstrates the prospects of spark plasma sintering (SPS) for the high-speed diffusion bonding of the high-strength ultrafine-grained (UFG) near-α Ti–5Al–2V alloy. The effect of increased diffusion bonding intensity in the UFG Ti alloys is discussed also. The bonding areas of the UFG near-α Ti–5Al–2V alloy obtained by SPS are featured by high density, strength, and corrosion resistance. The rate of bonding in the UFG alloys has been shown to depend on the heating rate non-monotonously (with a pronounced maximum). At the stage of continuous heating and isothermic holding, the bonding kinetics was found to be determined by the exponential creep rate, the intensity of which in the coarse-grained alloys is limited by the diffusion rate in the crystal lattice α-Ti. In the UFG alloy, the exponential creep processes associated with gliding and climb of dislocations, the activation energy of which corresponds to the diffusion activation energy in the lattice dislocation nuclei, may take place simultaneously with the grain boundary sliding and Coble creep, the activation energy of which corresponds to the grain boundary diffusion activation energy.