Fundamentals of Spark-Plasma Sintering (Final Report)
- San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); San Diego State University
This project was focused on the development of the general theory of spark-plasma sintering (SPS) taking into account the role of both thermal and non-thermal factors in the acceleration of SPS mass transport. SPS is a particular kind of field-assisted sintering, which provides potentially revolutionary capabilities to the processing of materials into configurations previously unattainable. This approach significantly improves the processing time- and quality-wise. It carries the potential of maintaining the nano and sub-micron structure in nano-powder-based materials after consolidation. SPS gains particular prominence in connection with its exceptional potential of rapid and ultra-rapid processing of very hard-to-deform materials, which would typically require lengthy consolidation times at significantly elevated temperatures under conditions of conventional powder pressing or sintering. The achievement of the ultimate goal of the formulation of the general theory of spark plasma sintering required the identification of the contributions of all the thermal and non-thermal factors in the enhancement of mass transport under SPS processing conditions. As our research indicated, this enhancement is mostly reduced to the creation of the conditions of controlled non-equilibrium, which is especially important in ultra-rapid field-assisted sintering techniques. Thus, the main project objective was the analysis of the SPS physical basis at multiple scales specifically exploring the role of electric current in the acceleration of mass transport and with an emphasis on the conditions of controlled non-equilibrium.
- Research Organization:
- San Diego State Univ., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0008581
- OSTI ID:
- 1877929
- Report Number(s):
- DE‐SC0008581
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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