Wetting and capillarity driven grain rearrangement and microstructure evolution during liquid phase sintering: Solubility and particle size effects

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Fathollah Varnik
• Subject Area: Thermodynamics and Kinetics as well as Properties of Phases and Microstructure of Materials ; Glass, Ceramics and Derived Composites
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273088361

Liquid phase sintering represents a challenge to numerical simulations as it involves phase transformation kinetics (melting/solidification), wetting and capillarity and rigid body motion. Despite this complexity, we have recently implemented an efficient hybrid method to adequately tackle this problem. The approach combines the powerful phase field method for the simulation of microstructure evolution with the multiphase lattice Boltzmann method, well-known for adequate study of fluid flow and capillarity in complex geometries. One of the key issues here is how the liquid-assisted dissociation of the bonds between solid grains and the resulting increase in grain mobility influence the evolution of the microstructure. Furthermore, effects of capillary bridges and the resulting mutual attraction between solid particles shall be investigated. Important questions here concern the influence of hard/soft particle size ratio and polydispersity on microstructure evolution and compaction dynamics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Ingo Steinbach
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr.-Ing. Werner Theisen