Abstract
The intermetallic compound Nb3Al has attracted much attention as a potential high temperature material because of its high melting point. In the present study, we have made shock-consolidation experiments on Nb-20at. %Al alloy powders, which is produced by mechanical alloying of elemental powders, with the use of a single-stage propellant gun as a function of projectile velocity in the range of 0.75-1.49km/s. The density of compacts increases with increasing projectile velocty and saturates to a value of 7.25 Mg/m3 when the velocity exceeds 1.16km/s. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that the compound Nb3Al is formed for projectile velocities greater than 1.16km/s. Very fine microstructures with grain size of 10-200nm as well as high hardness values are observed on compacts consolidated with these projectile velocities.
