The influence of the cobalt content on the strength properties of tungsten carbide ceramics under dynamic loads

Based on the registration and analysis of the full wave profiles, the Hugoniot elastic limit and spall strength of ceramics based on tungsten carbide with different cobalt content are measured. We also study the influence of the cobalt content on the mechanical characteristics of tungsten carbide such as hardness, fracture strength, Young's modulus, shear modulus, and sound velocity. It is shown that in the process of spalling, the failure stresses grow and the dynamic elastic limit decreases almost linearly within the scatter of their values with growing cobalt content; moreover, the value of the Hugoniot elastic limit is abruptly practically halved as the cobalt content grows from 0 to 2 wt %.