Preparation of an ultrafine-grained Fe-40Al intermetallic compound

An ultrafine grained Fe-40Al intermetallic compound is fabricated by a self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) casting. The XRD result shows that the Fe-40Al intermetallic compound consists of the B2 FeAl phase. The Fe-40Al intermetallic compound presents ultrafine grain size in the range of 100--600~nm, leading from the high nucleation rate and the low growth rate. The Fe-40Al intermetallic compound exhibits high hardness (3.4 GPa) and high bending strength (830 MPa) and high compressive strength (2700 MPa), which originate from the ultrafine-structure in the material. The effect of the load on dry-sliding wear rate of the material against AISI52100 steel was investigated. The wear rate increases with the increase of normal load. The dominated wear mechanism is microfracture.