Modeling of multi-step loading of porous copper specimen duringspark plasma sintering

Abstract

Modeling of copper powder consolidation during multi-step sparkplasma sintering (SPS) has been carried out. It is shown, that good agreement between experiment and theory can be obtained if constitutive equations of primary creep with corresponding strain-hardening relationships are used for the modeling of copper behavior. Modeling predicts value of SPS creep activation energy lower than activation energy of traditional hot pressing. At the same time, high densification rate during SPS can be attributed to the temperature non-homogeneity during SPS, that influences powder consolidation both at the macroscopic and mesoscopic structure levels.