FOLLOWING THE PROGRESS OF SINTERING BY MEASURING VISCOSITY AND ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY VARIATIONS

摘要

The simplest way of characterising the advancement of sintering of a powder is to follow the variation of its relative density. However, sintering of dense compact, obtained for example by die pressing of iron-based powders, occurs with very low density changes, while, of course, the microstructure and the properties of the material strongly evolve. In this study, the progress of sintering is followed by a continuous measurement of two characteristics of the material throughout sintering: the electrical resistivity and the viscosity. The original techniques developed for the measurement are presented and the interest of the data obtained for the understanding and modelling of sintering is discussed.