The stages in liquid phase sintering

The shrinkage curve recorded during an isothermal treatment of liquid phase sintering shows three stages  

The liquid dissolves the surface asperities and also dissolves the small particles. The granular rearrangement is limited to the hquid phase sintering itself, but it can be enough to allow complete densification if the hquid phase is in sufficient quantity, as is the case in the vitrification of sihcate ceramics  

The role of chemical reactions is still sigrrificant, because they bring into play energies much higher than the interfacial ones and frequently the reachons between hquid and solid result in the formation of new phases. We can thus dishnguish three 

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