A microstructure based numerical simulation of microwave sintering of specialized SOFC materials

An on-going project is investigating novel materials such La2NiO4 for use as SOFC cathode materials. Owing to their more complex electrochemical properties, these classes of materials have proven to be good electromagnetic susceptors and consequently are being processed with microwave sintering. Finite element code has been developed for simulating the sintering of porous ceramic materials, and is capable of treating local microstructural features derived from the powder properties of the compact. The objective of the project is to develop a microstructure based numerical simulation of heat uptake in a microwave field in order to explore suitable sintering processing conditions and parameter ranges. Specifically, field values of the compact density, particle size distribution and temperature can be traced over time. Since the particle size distribution is a field variable, the simulation should prove to be a useful research tool for microstructure design through powder compact sintering, for novel SOFC materials which have complex responses to microwave energy.