Computational-friendly analytical model of electrical current pulse pattern in a spark plasma sintering device

Abstract The pulse pattern of the current applied during a Spark Plasma Sintering treatment is carefully characterized using a specific electrical instrumentation. A detailed description of the pulse waveform is performed in order to state well-founded hypotheses leading to the construction of a computational mathematical model of pulse train. A particular design constraint for this model is the low computational complexity required to allow intensive calculation for simulation within a multiphysics engine of the sintering process. The built model of pulse generation is validated by confrontation to measured pulsed currents at various delivered electrical powers. It is shown that this model is faithful with the behavior of the pulse generator. This analytical approach leads to a deeper understanding of the correlation between the operating features of the pulse generator and the variation of the electrical power delivered by the Spark Plasma Sintering machine, in particular the evolution of the average and root mean squared values of the delivered current.