DIMENSIONLESS PARAMETERS FOR MICROSTRUCTURAL PATHWAYS IN SINTERING

Dimensionless parameters have been developed to study microstructural pathways for the sintering of powders, These parameters are designed t o facilitate the comparison of microstructural paths for any sintering experiments, independent of the characteristic length scales in the m icrostructures. Microstructural pathways constructed with the dimensio nless parameters are found to be similar for three different alumina c eramics. The systematic differences between the experimental results a nd the predictions of models based on simplifying geometric assumption s are explained in terms of the packing disruptions in the green micro structures.