Effect of pulsed DC current on neck growth between tungsten wires and tungsten plates during the initial stage of sintering by the spark plasma sintering method

The spark plasma sintering of tungsten wires to tungsten plates was investigated to assess the effect of the current. Neck growth between wires and plates was about 1.5 larger in the presence of current than when the current was absent. The neck growth was controlled by an evaporation-condensation mechanism. The mechanism, however, does not relate to the sintering of tungsten, but to the control of a surface oxide reduction, in agreement with previous investigations.