MODELING AND SIMULATION OF THE EFFECT OF THE FIRING CURVE ON THE LINEAR SHRINKAGE OF CERAMIC MATERIALS: LABORATORY SCALE AND INDUSTRIAL SCALE

Single-cycle firing is currently the most widespread method used for the production of ceramic tile. The productivity is directly related to the performance of the constituent materials of the ceramic piece during thermal cycling. Numerical tools which allow the prediction of the material behavior may be of great help in the optimization of this stage. This study addressed the mathematical modeling of the temperature profile within a ceramic tile, together with the sintering kinetics, to simulate the effect of the thermal cycle on the final size. On the laboratory scale, 80 mm x 20 mm specimens with thicknesses of 2.3 mm and 7.8 mm were prepared in order to determine the kinetic constants and validate the model. The application was carried out on an industrial scale, with 450 mm x 450 mm pieces that were 8.0 mm thick. These results show that the model was capable of predicting the experimental results satisfactorily.