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Spark plasma sintering of zirconium carbide and oxycarbide: Finite element modeling of current density, temperature, and stress distributions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Guy Antou ,
Gendre Mathieu ,
Gilles Trolliard  and
Alexandre Maître
Alexandre Maître*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Science des Procédés Céramiques et de Traitements de Surface (SPCTS) UMR CNRS 6638—Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, F-87060 Limoges Cedex—France
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: alexandre.maitre@unilim.fr
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Abstract

A combined experimental/numerical approach was developed to determine the distribution of current density, temperature, and stress arising within the sample during spark plasma sintering (SPS) treatment of zirconium carbide (ZrCx) or oxycarbide (ZrCxOy). Stress distribution was calculated by using a numerical thermomechanical model, assuming that a slip without mechanical friction exists at the interfaces between the sample and the graphite elements. Heating up to 1950 °C at 100 °C min−1 and a constant applied pressure of 100 MPa were retained as process conditions. Simulated temperature distributions were found to be in excellent agreement with those measured experimentally. The numerical model confirms that, during the zirconium oxycarbide sintering, the temperature measured by the pyrometer on the die surface largely underestimates the actual temperature of the sample. This real temperature is in fact near the optimized sintering temperature for hot-pressed zirconium oxycarbide specimens. It is also shown that high stress gradients existing within the sample are much higher than the thermal ones. The amplitude of the stress gradients was found to be correlated with those of temperature even if they are also influenced by the macroscopic sample properties (coefficient of thermal expansion and elastic modulus). At high temperature, the radial and angular stresses, which are much higher than the vertical applied stress, provide the more significant contribution to the stress-related driving force for densification during the SPS treatment. The heat lost by radiation toward the wall chambers controlled both the thermal and stress gradients.

Keywords

SimulationSinteringThermal stresses
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , February 2009 , pp. 404 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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