Sintering viscosity

Zuo, R., Aulbach, E. and Rodel, J., Experimental determination of sintering stresses and sintering viscosities, Acta Mater., 51, 4563-74, 2003. 

Some plastics caimot be obtained in a low viscosity melt or solution that can be processed into a cellular state. For these cases two methods have been used to achieve the needed dispersion of gas in solid sintering of solid plastic particles and leaching of soluble inclusions from the solid plastic phase. 

Sintering has been used to produce a porous polytetrafluoroethylene (16). Cellulose sponges are the most familiar cellular polymers produced by the leaching process (123). Sodium sulfate crystals are dispersed in the viscose symp and subsequently leached out. Polyethylene (124) or poly(vinyl chloride) can also be produced in cellular form by the leaching process. The artificial leather-tike materials used for shoe uppers are rendered porous by extraction of salts (125) or by designing the polymers in such a way that they precipitate as a gel with many holes (126). 

Rotational Molding. Hodow articles and large, complex shapes are made by rotational mol ding, usuady from polyethylene powder of relatively low viscosity (57—59). The resin is in the form of a fine powder. A measured quantity is placed inside an aluminum mold and the mold is heated in an oven and rotated at low speed. The resin sinters and fuses, coating the inside of the mold. The mold is then cooled by water spray and the part solidifies, dupHcating the inside of the mold. 

Infiltration (67) provides a unique means of fabricating ceramic composites. A ceramic compact is partially sintered to produce a porous body that is subsequently infiltrated with a low viscosity ceramic precursor solution. Advanced ceramic matrix composites such as alumina dispersed in zirconia [1314-23-4] Zr02, can be fabricated using this technique. Complete infiltration produces a homogeneous composite partial infiltration produces a surface modified ceramic composite. 

Porous Media Packed beds of granular solids are one type of the general class referred to as porous media, which include geological formations such as petroleum reservoirs and aquifers, manufactured materials such as sintered metals and porous catalysts, burning coal or char particles, and textile fabrics, to name a few. Pressure drop for incompressible flow across a porous medium has the same quahtative behavior as that given by Leva s correlation in the preceding. At low Reynolds numbers, viscous forces dominate and pressure drop is proportional to fluid viscosity and superficial velocity, and at high Reynolds numbers, pressure drop is proportional to fluid density and to the square of superficial velocity. 

Sato et al. " measured the viscosities of some binary and ternary alkali carbonates. Since melt creep must be prevented, a highly sintered alumina crucible was used instead of a gold-plated nickel crucible. Homogeneity of a mixture sample was achieved by gas bubbling. A laser beam is combined with a computer-assisted time counter to obtain the logarithmic decrement. Roscoe s equationi3i has been used for calculation of the viscosity, while it has been claimed by Abe et al. that the viscosities calculated from Roscoe s equation are 0.6-1.5% lower than those from more rigorous equations. 

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