Cladding of a crack-free W plate on Cu plates using explosive welding at higher collision velocity with lower collision angle

This study aimed to obtain a W/Cu clad with high bending strength using explosive welding (EW), since its thermo-physical property combination is attractive for industrial applications. Cladding both metal plates using EW results cracks in W plates from the surface toward interface. Eliminating the cracks in W plate of clads was a major challenge in this study. The formation of cracks is fundamentally due to generation of high-intensity reflected tensile waves as a consequence of the undissipated imparted kinetic energy (KE) at the collision interface. A crack-free W plate as well as higher bending strength have been obtained in the W/Cu clads produced at the highest collision velocity with lower collision angles among three samples produced at different horizontal collision velocities. The EW clad interface exhibited an intermediate layer (IL), which was associated with higher consumption of KE at the interface, leading to reduction of the intensity of reflected tensile waves. The IL consisted of nanometer- and submicrometer-sized W fragments distributed in a Cu matrix, leading to higher hardness than a Cu plate. This could have contributed to the increase in the bending strength of the clads. (187 words).