Equilibrium configuration of particles in sintering under constraint Original Research Article

The equilibrium configuration of identical particles evolved during sintering was determined by minimizing the sum of surface energy and grain boundary energy for the case where the interparticle distance was constrained. The energy was calculated for the equilibrium configuration as functions of the distance between particles. The energy–displacement curve exhibited hysteresis loop at bonding and separation of two particles. The sintering force, a force necessary to just stop the sintering contraction, was calculated from the slope of energy–displacement curve.