Effect of heat treatment on bend stress relaxation of pure tungsten

Bend stress relaxation (BSR) tests at temperatures of 500, 600, 800, 900 and 1000 °C for 0.1, 0.5 and 1 h in vacuum were performed on the pure tungsten after heat treatment for stress relief at 900 °C for 1 h. The degree of stress relaxation increased with test temperature. The BSR ratio of the heat treated specimen was larger than that of the as-received specimen at this temperature region. Small reduction in the BSR ratio was observed at the temperatures of 500, 600 and 800 °C. The BSR ratio of the heat treated specimen decreased significantly at the temperatures of 900 and 1000 °C and it was close to that of the as-received specimen. The BSR ratio of the heat treated specimen and the as-received specimen exhibited similar trend of time-evolution. The stress was exponentially relaxed with increasing test time. The BSR ratio decreased significantly in a short time below 0.1 h, and then decreased slowly. Higher activation energy of stress relaxation evaluated by cross-cut method was obtained for the higher temperature.