Generalized phase field approach for computer simulation of sintering: incorporation of rigid-body motion

• Published in: Scripta materialia Vol. 41; no. 5; pp. 487 - 492
• Main Authors: Kazaryan, A, Wang, Y, Patton, Bruce R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Ltd 06.08.1999; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Kinetics; Materials science; Materials synthesis; materials processing; Metals. Metallurgy; Microstructure; Phase field; Physics; Powder processing: powder metallurgy, compaction, sintering, mechanical alloying, and granulation; Sintering; Theory and modeling; Theory and modeling; Kinetics; Microstructure; Sintering; Phase field; Theoretical study; Modelling; Computerized simulation; Powder metallurgy
• ISSN: 1359-6462; 1872-8456
• DOI: 10.1016/S1359-6462(99)00179-7

The phase field model has been extended to take into account the macroscopic rigid-body motion of grains during sintering. By means of computer simulation it has been clearly demonstrated that it is the rigid-body motion that contributes to the overall sample shrinkage and densification. The model has been tested on a simple problem of two-grain sintering with a single flat boundary and a row of identical pores. Good agreement of pore shrinkage kinetics between the simulation prediction and analytical solution in the case of coupled surface and grain boundary diffusion has been observed. It is shown that in contrast to the boundary tracking simulation methods of sintering where only surface and grain boundary diffusion are considered, the generalized phase field model can easily incorporate bulk diffusion which controls a wide variety of phenomena during the sintering process. The simulation results suggest that introduction of bulk diffusion may dramatically change the kinetics of pore elimination.