From many experiments with mixtures of small and large particles, it can be
concluded that during liquid phase sintering, smaller particles partially
dissolve and a solid phase precipitates on the larger particles. Therefore,
the number of smaller particles decreases due to coarsening. The growth ra
te can be controlled either by the solid-liquid phase boundary reaction or
by diffusion through the liquid phase. This dissolution-reprecipitation pro
cess leads to further densification by rearrangement of smaller and larger
particles. The microstructure may change either by larger particles growing
during the Ostwald ripening process or by shape accommodation. In this stu
dy, two-dimensional simulation of grain growth by grain boundary migration
based on such a physical and corresponding numerical modeling of liquid pha
se sintering was considered. The simulation method developed is based on th
e defined submodels for model system definition, for solution-precipitation
, and for grain coarsening process. (C) 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.