CAREER: Continuum Modeling of Sintering

San Diego State University Foundation, San Diego CA

Investigators

Abstract

Sintering is an important technological process of powder and porous material consolidation used in various fields of manufacturing ranging from electronic circuit production to large-scale tooling. The continuum approach enables prediction of shape distortions and density distributions under sintering which are critical in modeling net-shape processing of powder materials including both conventional powder thermoprocessing and novel areas such as laser, microwave, and plasma sintering. Thereby one of the most important problems of powder treatment - dimension control - can be successfully resolved. A considerable amount of research activity is presently taking place in this area but there is a lack of effort in the following directions which will be the focus of the present research: (1) modeling at different hierarchical physical scales taking into consideration material micro-structure characteristics in continuum models of sintering; (2) taking into account additional factors such as phase transformations; (3) prediction of sintering stability and development of sintering damage criteria. The educational part of the career program incorporates the development of undergraduate and graduate courses including the preparation of a textbook on physics and mechanics of sintering which will combine theoretical concepts developed in three major schools (U.S., Eastern and Western European) of science of sintering.