Constitutive modeling of alumina sintering: grain-size effect on dominant densification mechanism

In the present work, alumina powders with the initial grain sizes of 0.9 and 7.0 μm, respectively, were sintered at different temperatures. Constitutive laws for densification were employed to model the sintering process of alumina ceramics. Based on the constitutive laws employed and the experimental results obtained, the dominant densification mechanism was identified and the effect of grain size on dominant densification mechanism was discussed. The activation energy for densification was also evaluated. In the investigated sintering temperature range, interface reaction was identified as the controlling process in sintering of alumina powders with the initial grain size of 0.9 μm, while grain-boundary diffusion was identified as the dominant process in sintering of alumina powders with the initial grain size of 7.0 μm. The activation energies for densification of the finer and coarser grain size alumina ceramics were determined as 342 and 384 kJ mol−1, respectively, which provided a strong support on the densification mechanism investigation.