Studies on Interfacial Phenomena in Titanium Carbide/Liquid Steel Systems for Development of Functionally Graded Material

In modern materials' applications, versatile, often contradictory requirements are set for properties like high strength, hardness, and toughness. However, e.g., in steel castings, typically only certain surfaces should be hard and wear resistant, whereas the other “bulk” might have only standard properties. Then the critical parts of the surface should be “locally reinforced” to get functionally graded material. Expensive alloying elements are saved, and manufacturing stages are minimized. Titanium carbide is an extremely hard material widely applied in carbide tools. It could be used to reinforce steel castings. When TiC particles are added to liquid steel, wettability, stability, and dissolution are key phenomena that should be understood to better design and control manufacturing processes. In this work, the interfacial phenomena and reactions between TiC and iron/steel melts were examined by wetting experiments with special emphasis on the influence of Cr, Ni, and Mo. No significant effect on wettability was observed by Ni or Mo. High Cr melts showed somewhat higher contact angles. Partial penetration of liquid metal took place in the substrate along the grain boundaries. Ni seemed to promote penetration. During longer experiments, re-precipitation of carbides occurred on the liquid droplet influencing the apparent wetting angle. Cr and Mo promoted carbide formation.