Simple method for the identification of electrical and thermal contact resistances in spark plasma sintering

The electrical and thermal contact resistances are key parameters for obtaining an accurate electro-thermal model of the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. However, due to the lack of a general expression, these parameters are usually determined empirically. Thus, they are only valid for a specific material and SPS configuration. A simple method based on a limited amount of experiments as well as a new formulation of the electrical and thermal contact resistances are developed. First, the evolution of those resistances is optimized on simple shapes (pellets) experiments. They are then transferred into the electro-thermal simulation of complex shapes configurations, which showed a good agreement between the experimental and computed data.