Science of Sintering (Jan 2011)

Equilibrium neck shapes for initial stages of solid-state sintering due to surface diffusion in a disk model of clays

  • Medved I.,
  • Moravčíková J.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2298/SOS1102133M
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 43, no. 2
pp. 133 – 143

Abstract

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We study equilibrium neck shapes corresponding to initial stages of solid-state sintering, using a microscopic model of clays in which particles have a uniform disk shape with a microscale diameter R and a nanoscale thickness δ = R/100. Particles are stacked on top of each other, forming vertical piles of various heights ranging from h = δ to h = 10δ. Pores are formed in the spaces between any three touching piles of the same height. Assuming that surface diffusion is the dominant sintering mechanism and considering a simplified form of the neck configuration, we derive equilibrium neck shapes by minimizing a neck surface free energy when a neck volume V fixed. We allow for the anisotropy of the surface free energy, using a single anisotropy parameter q. We discuss the dependence of the obtained neck shapes on the neck volume V, pore height h, and anisotropy parameter q.

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