Dynamic computer simulation of viscous flow sintering kinetics

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Abstract
A dynamic model of sintering by viscous flow has been developed in which viscous flow is treated as an analogue of incompressible, solid elastic behavior, using finite element analysis to transform the equivalent elastic problem to one of slow viscous flow. The sintering of an infinite line of cylinders was considered with surface morphology and neck size being monitored as a function of time. In general the model yielded higher neck growth rates than those reported in the literature based on static geometric approximations to the real neck curvature. This difference is shown to be due to the relatively small radii of curvature at the neck roots found in the present study, leading naturally to a greater driving force for sintering.