Numerical Modeling of the Solid-State Sintering Process by Coupling the Thermal and Microstructural Fields

A multiphysics model based on coupling heat transfer and phase field problems for simulating the thermal and microstructural behavior of the solid-state sintering process was presented. The coupling problem between the heat conduction and phase field models was solved by using the finite element method. The thermal and microstructural behaviors of the solid-state sintering process are presented in this work. It was found that the thermal field leads to the activation of the microstructural field through the mechanisms of mass transport, while the evolution of the phase field variables influences the thermal properties of the material. The convergence of the thermal field is much faster than the microstructural field, so simulations at constant temperature produce almost the same result as at variable temperature for the simulated cases.