Abstract
Solid additives are widely used to control the mechanical properties of powder materials in many industries. In this paper, the measurement of the tensile strength of a powder bed with a split-cell type tester was conducted to elucidate the effect of solid additives on the mechanical properties of powder materials.
Fused alumina powder, silica sand, limestone, lactose and potato starch were selected as the powder materials, and colloidal silica was used as a solid additive.
The relationship between the tensile strength and the porosity of powder bed containing the additive was proposed to characterize the effect of the additives on the mechanical properties of the powder materials.
Furthermore, experimental results reported by others were able to be explained by the above relationship.
