Thermal-electrical-mechanical simulation of the nickel densification by Spark Plasma Sintering. Comparison with experiments

Spark Plasma Sintering is a non-conventional process of the powder metallurgy field which uses a high electrical current to rapidly produce fully dense materials. In the present paper, a thermal-electrical mechanical model developed on ABAQUS Software is proposed to simulate the densification of a nickel disk. A compaction model, studied in [Wolff, C., Mercier, S., Couque, H., Molinari, A., 2012. Modeling of conventional hot compaction and spark plasma sintering based on modified micromechanical models of porous materials. Mechanics of Materials 49 (0), 72-91. URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167663611002195], has been used to reproduce the densification of the sample. Two SPS experiments have been necessary to identify the parameters of the densification law. In order to evaluate the robustness of the present model, two other SPS experiments have been performed. The whole results of the simulation show a good agreement with the experimental data confirming the validity of the compaction model developed in [Wolff, C., Mercier, S., Couque, H., Molinari, A., 2012. Modeling of conventional hot compaction and spark plasma sintering based on modified micromechanical models of porous materials. Mechanics of Materials 49 (0), 72-91. URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167663611002195]. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.