Phenomenological analysis of densification kinetics during sintering: application to WC–Co mixture

This paper presents a phenomenological approach to describe the densification kinetics of tungsten carbide–cobalt powder compacts during sintering. A special sintering test including short isothermal sequences is proposed. From the results of this test a simple equation expressing the densification rate as function of temperature, relative density and green density is identified. The predictive capacity of this equation is then demonstrated by investigating the densification of the material during other sintering tests with various heating rates and with compacts of several green densities.