Modeling of glass sintering applied for the fabrication of porous glass bodies

The sintering behavior of borosilicate and soda-lime mono-sized glass beads was investigated with the aim to fabricate transparent porous glass balls and cylinders. As the glasses tend to crystallize, temperatures where the sintering was in advantage compared to crystallization were used. Isothermal studies were undertaken for modeling the evolution of sintering necks as a function of radii of beads, temperature and time. The Frenkel model of viscous flow was applied to predict first and second stage of sintering. As the sintering of the glasses without crystallization was only possible at high temperatures the process is very fast and has to be controlled precisely. The results of this work were applied for the fabrication of porous bodies with specific characteristics: different geometries and sizes, transparency, high porosities to be achieved during first stage sintering of spherical glass beads. The porous parts with these characteristics are used for the investigation of hydrodynamic processes in the pore network of glass parts.