Modeling residual porosity in thick components consolidated by spark plasma sintering

A constitutive model for densification during spark plasma sintering was adapted and applied to an aluminum–magnesium alloy to determine the effect of increasing sample thickness on residual porosity after sintering. The contributions of electromigration, sintering stresses and external load (on creep, diffusion and yielding) were all taken into consideration, as well as the effect of pressure on increasingly thick components. The results show that the overall description of the spark plasma sintering process agrees with the experimental results.