Flash sintering of complex shapes

Abstract : Flash (ultra-rapid) sintering of powder materials is a Multiphysics phenomenon which has a potential for the quasi-instantaneous fabrication of various components. However, the intrinsic instability of flash sintering makes it difficult to apply to complex shapes and large specimens. Here, we circumvent this problem by the use of an interface-controlled approach to impose stable and very fast heating to large powder samples which become fully dense in a matter of seconds. The Multiphysics simulation demonstrated that an electric-thermalmechanical confinement of the specimen allows a very efficient (and selective) heating and sintering of the powder specimen with a homogeneous microstructure and a substantial reduction of the grain growth. Our results indicate that the ultra-rapid sintering of large and complex shape samples is possible.