Porosity effect on densification and shape distortion in liquid phase sintering

Densification and shape distortion are two important events associated with liquid phase sintering. In general, the initial porosity effects on both are ignored due to the rapid densification typical to liquid phase sintering. To completely describe the sintering process, porosity and pore size effects should be included in any sintering model. In this study, samples differing in initial porosity were sintered and quenched from various points in a sintering cycle to track the porosity effect on densification and distortion. Sinterability of the compact was defined as the ratio of sintering stress to compact strength to predict the densification and linked with sample composition and porosity. Porosity influences how the sample distorts during sintering. A high initial porosity sample is more likely to collapse along the longitudinal direction while a low initial porosity sample tends to spheroidize.