Densification Rate of Cu-Al₂O₃ Composite in the Spark Sintering Process

Abstract

The densification rate of Cu-Al₂O₃ composite was measured and analyzed to investigate the influences of the alumina particles addition on the densification process in the spark sintering process.
The consolidation of Cu-10∼50 vol%Al₂O₃ composites proceeds due to the plastic flow of copper powder compact matrix. The effect of the alumina particles on the spark sintering of composites was analyzed based on the following equation, including the increase of relative density of composite compact, D−D₀, that of copper (D_c-c−D₀) and alumina (D_al-al−D₀) and the particle contact probability of “copper-copper” ((1−V_p)²), “copper-alumina”(2V_p(1−V_p)) and “alumina-alumina” (V_p²).
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\ oindentwhere η is a ratio of the relative density increase at “copper-alumina” particle contacts to that at “copper-copper” particles contacts, and η≤1. Moreover, D, D_c-c and D_al-al are the relative density of composite compact, copper and alumina at a given temperature and pressure, respectively, and V_p is the volume fraction of added alumina particles.