Investigation on sintering mechanism of nanoscale tungsten powder based on atomistic simulation

Atomistic simulations focusing on sintering of crystalline tungsten powders at the submicroscopic level are performed to shed light on the processing on the nanoscale powders. The neck growth and shrinkage were calculated during these sintering simulations, making it possible to extend these results to the evolution of global physical properties that occurs during sintering. The densification and grain growth during sintering were calculated with variations in temperature, pressure, particle configuration and crystalline misalignment between particles. These findings lay the foundation for a virtual approach to setting the processing cycles and materials design applicable to nanoscale powders. (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.