The Liquid-Phase Sintering and Coalescence of Small Solid Particles

The process of the liquid-phase sintering is quantitatively considered from the viewpoint of the thermodynamic approach in application to isothermal conditions. The model is based on the assumption that a metastable liquid phase is formed near the contact of two particles. The most probable way of the sintering process is defined by variation of configuration of the system consisting of two partially molten particles and minimization of the free energy of the system. As a result of calculations based on the model, the following are obtained: i) step-by-step configurations of partially molten particles during the process of sintering, and ii) the intensity of the solid-liquid transition as a function of the sizes of the particles and their temperature.