THE STRUCTURE OF CONSTITUTIVE LAWS FOR THE SINTERING OF FINE-GRAINED MATERIALS

This paper examines the general structure of constitutive laws for the sintering of fine grained materials for situations where power-law cr eep and grain-boundary diffusion are the dominant mechanisms of deform ation and densification. The description of grain-boundary diffusion a ccepts an interface reaction. Constitutive laws for general multiaxial stress states are expressed in terms of scalar potential functions. B ounds to the potential are obtained which take into account the coupli ng between power-law creep and diffusion.