A model for 3-D study of rearrangement in liquid phase sintering

The rearrangement process assumes that if there is good wetting between liquid and solid phase, solid particles will rearrange themselves under the action of surface tension forces, producing more stable green packing. This paper outlines a computer-based method for calculation of the capillary force during liquid phase sintering based on a two-spherical-particle model and circle approximation for computation of the liquid bridge meniscus. The method was applied to a 3-D study of the rearrangement during liquid phase sintering using a multi-particle model. The results obtained have shown that rearrangement is essentially governed by geometrical factors where uniformity of initial particle packing and a high degree of mixing homogeneity are prerequisites for effective densification.