Three-dimensional simulation of sintering crunodes of metal powders or fibers by level set method

The difference of sintering crunodes of metal powders and fibers is discussed. The mathematical model of the surface diffusion described by the difference in mean curvature is defined as a Hamilton-Jacobi-type equation, and the model is numerically solved by the level set method. The three-dimensional numerical simulations of two metal powders and fibers (the fiber angle is 0° or 90°) are implemented by this mathematical model, respectively. The numerical simulation results accord with the experimental ones. The sintering neck growth trends of metal powders and metal fibers are similar. The sintering neck radius of metal fibers is larger than that of metal powders. The difference of the neck radius is caused by the difference of geometric structure which makes an important influence on the curvature affecting the migration rate of atoms.