Predicting sintering deformation of ceramic film constrained by rigid substrate using anisotropic constitutive law

Sintering of ceramic films on a solid substrate is an important technology for fabricating a range of products, including solid oxide fuel cells, micro-electronic PZT films and protective coatings. There is clear evidence that the constrained sintering process is anisotropic in nature. This paper presents a study of the constrained sintering deformation using an anisotropic constitutive law. The state of the material is described using the sintering strains rather than the relative density. In the limiting case of free sintering, the constitutive law reduces to a conventional isotropic constitutive law. The anisotropic constitutive law is used to calculate sintering deformation of a constrained film bonded to a rigid substrate and the compressive stress required in a sinter-forging experiment to achieve zero lateral shrinkage. The results are compared with experimental data in the literature. It is shown that the anisotropic constitutive law can capture the behaviour of the materials observed in the sintering experiments.