Grain growth in sintering: A discrete element model on large packings

Sintering is a high temperature process used for ceramic or metallic powder consolidation that consists of concurrent densification and grain growth. This work presents a coupled solid-state sintering and grain growth model capable of studying large packings of particles within the Discrete Element Method (DEM) framework. The approach uses a refinement for large particle size ratios of previously established contact laws to model shrinkage. In...