EXAMPLE OF APPLICATION OF PROBABILISTIC MODELS - DETERMINATION OF THEKINETICS PARAMETERS DURING LIQUID-PHASE SINTERING

The purpose of this paper is to present how the probabilistic models, which lead to the obtention of mathematical parameters, allow to estim ate physical parameters. The application presented here deals with the determination of kinetics parameters of cermets materials during the coarsening of particles in liquid phase sintering: the growth rate and the kinetics exponent. The materials used are WC-Co cermets and three models were tested: a Boolean scheme, a dead leaves model and a mosai c model. The model which gives the best result is the Boolean model wi th Poisson primary grains. It allows also to estimate a topological pa rameter, the number of connectivity in IR3, which is in strong connect ion with the number of grains present at each time during the sinterin g; this parameter is then also a good indicator of the kinetics in the sintering process.