“…The potential of SPS for near-net-shaping has been recognized and some studies have reported the formation of complex-shaped samples, with more or less pronounced deviations from the cylindrical symmetry, for materials as diverse as porous silica monoliths [3], oxide composites [4], silicon carbide [5], coatings on Ni-based superalloys [6], and TiAl alloys [7]. However, so far there are only a few studies addressing the problem theoretically [8][9][10], investigating the impact of the sample geometry, size and heterogeneous stress states on the non-uniformity of temperature, relative density, and grain size spatial distributions. The aim of this paper is to investigate the direct preparation by SPS of copper samples with the so-called dog-bone shape used for tensile tests specimens.…”