Experiments and numerical modelling of solid state sintering for 316L stainless steel components

The sintering process of 316L stainless steel powder components obtained from metal injection moulding is investigated through experiments in dilatometer and furnace. A sintering model based on elastic–viscoplastic constitutive equations is proposed and the corresponding parameters such as bulk viscosity, shearing viscosity and sintering stress are identified from dilatometer experimental data. The constitutive model is then implemented into a finite element software in order to perform the simulation of the sintering process. The inhomogeneous green density contours are introduced into the sintering simulations that lead to anisotropic shrinkage and distortion of the final components. The simulation results are compared to the experimental ones and a good agreement is obtained.