The effect of agglomerate on micro-structural evolution in solid-state sintering

Discrete element method (DEM) is used in the present paper to simulate the microstructural evolution of a planar layer of copper particles during sintering. Formation of agglomerates and the effect of their rearrangement on densification are mainly focused on. Comparing to the existing experimental observations, we find that agglomerate can form spontaneously in sintering and its rearrangement could accelerate the densification of compacts. Snapshots of numerical simulations agree qualitatively well with experimental observations. The method could be readily extended to investigate the effect of agglomerate on sintering in a threedimensional model, which should be very useful for understanding the evolution ofmicrostructure of sintering systems.