Effect of Sintering Isothermal Time on Mechanical Properties of Metal Matrix Composite

Mechanical properties of ferritic-marensitic steels can be improved through dispersion of fine particles with large industrial applications like nuclear, military and aeronautic areas. Steels used at nuclear reactors suffer some damage when exposure to various kinds of radiation such as gamma, plasma, neutrons among others. Special steels have been studied to resist these processes in which cause a significant degradation of these materials. Reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels (RAFM) are used for fusion structural materials with the substitution of some alloying elements such as Mo, Nb and Ni present in the commercial martensitic steels by other elements which exhibit faster decay of induced radioactivity, such as Ta, W and V. This present work study the development of EUROFER97 steel reinforced with 3wt% of tantalum carbide (TaC).