Analysis of the Sintering Pressure

When the sintering of a polycrystalline body is analyzed by coupling the change in interface energies and the change in total volume of the polycrystal, it is discovered that the sintering pressure is a sum of two terms, one deriving from the surface curvature of the pores and the other depending on the size of the grains. When pores are present at two‐grain, three‐grain, or four‐grain junctions, and when the number of pores of each type per particle remains constant, the sintering pressure is expressed by a simple equation. This result may suggest new approaches to the problem of grain growth during the sintering process. The result also highlights a fundamental difference between the sintering of ceramics and the sintering of glasses.