Experimental Study on the Kinetics of Sintering of Metal Powder at Constant Temperature. I

In the present paper the isothermal changes of the breaking strength and the shrinkage of the sintered metals have been measured for copper and iron at various temperatures in keeping other conditions constant. From the experimental results some empirical formulae for the rate of sintering have been derived as a function of time and temperature with respect to the porosity in sintered metal. There are recognized some analogies to the nucleation and the growth of crystal and to the diffusion. However the physical meanings of the experimental formulae are not satisfactorily interpreted, but the values of the experimental activation energies for sintering of the considered metal powders are estimated formally from the temperature dependence upon a paramenter representing the velocity of the progress in the shrinkage. These values were compared respectively with those for self diffusion and a fair agreement between two experimental value has been found.