Study of the sintering kinetics of bimodal powders. A parametric DEM study

•A DEM study of bimodal powders is presented.•A generalized mean field model is established.•The kinetics of every type of contact is investigated.•The capability of a type of contact to drive densification depends on its radius.

This paper presents a DEM study of the sintering of bimodal powders. The influence of every type of contact between small–small, large–large and small–large particles on the macroscopic behavior is investigated. A generalized mean strain law that takes into account the contribution of the different contacts was used to compare the theoretical kinetics of the assembly with the DEM results. It came into view that the kinetics of the different contacts is shifted toward the average kinetics of the packings.The capability of a contact type to drive the macroscopic strain was found to be not only dependent on its probability but also on its equivalent radius.Hence, densification appears to be slower than predicted by the mean strain law when small–small contacts dominate with an important residual number of larger contacts.

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