Sintering anisotropy in slip-cast SiC-whisker/Si3N4-powder compacts

Modelling microstructural evolution of porous polycrystalline materials and a numerical study of anisotropic sintering

“…There have been many experimental studies on the anisotropic shrinkage and two factors appear to be the major causes for the anisotropic behaviour. The first factor is that elongate particles arrange themselves in a preferred orientation in processes like tape casting, injection moulding or compaction prior to sintering which has been reported by Sanchez [30], Mitomo et al [31], Huber et al [32], Zhang et al [33], Uematsu et al [34], Greenwood et al [35], Raj and Cannon [36], Raj et al [37] and Shui et al [38][39][40]. Recently, Raj et al [37] proposed a numerical model for the sintering of elongate particles which predicts that compact consisted of aligned elongate particles shrink faster in the direction of the shorter axis of the particles and that the shrinkage anisotropy reduces as sintering progresses.…”