Computer simulation of grain growth by grain boundary migration during liquid phase sintering

From many experiments with mixtures of small and large particles, it can be concluded that during liquid phase sintering, smaller particles partially dissolve and a solid phase precipitates on the larger particles. Therefore, the number of smaller particles decreases due to coarsening. The growth rate can be controlled either by the solid-liquid phase boundary reaction or by diffusion through the liquid phase. This dissolution-reprecipitation process leads to further densification by rearrangement of smaller and larger particles. The microstructure may change either by larger particles growing during the Ostwald ripening process or by shape accommodation. In this study, two-dimensional simulation of grain growth by grain boundary migration based on such a physical and corresponding numerical modeling of liquid phase sintering was considered. The simulation method developed is based on the defined submodels for model system definition, for solution-precipitation, and for grain coarsening process. (C) 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.