The effect of particle size on the densification kinetics of tungsten powder during spark plasma sintering

Abstract The influence of particle size on the densification kinetics of tungsten powder during spark plasma sintering was investigated. The densification rate of tungsten powder in the intermediate sintering stage decrease with increasing particle size, resulting in a delay in the sintering stages of coarse powder. The isothermal densification kinetic behaviors of tungsten powder show that the densification of tungsten powder can be divided into two kinetic stages: a low-stress exponent segment (n = 1.5) and a high-stress exponent segment (n = 3 or 4). With increasing of particle size, n increases from 3 to 4, and the activation energy decreases from 304 to 254 kJ/mol for the high-stress exponent segment. This is because the densification mechanism has a tendency to change from diffusion creep to dislocation creep or dislocation glide as the particle size increases. The evolution of the activation energy exactly matches the transformation of the deformation mechanism, indicating that the densification activation energy does not reflect a barrier to densification, but rather a barrier to deformation with different deformation mechanisms.