Mechanical testing of spark plasma sintered materials: A review

Abstract

Sintering is the process of heating and condensing metal particles at temperatures below their melting point. Hot isostatic pressing, microwave sintering, conventional sintering, and spark plasma sintering are all examples of sintering processes. Spark plasma sintering is a new powder consolidating method, particularly for processing nanomaterials, among all these methods. Pressure and electric current are utilized simultaneously in this technique to compact the densified powder. In this procedure, through the conductive die and the powder sample, a pulsed direct current is transferred. An electric field is created by the current provided, which heats the powder sample from the inside out. For spark plasma sintered materials, this study provides several mechanical testing methods such as compact tensile test, compression test, microhardness test, nanoindentation test, density measurements, corrosion studies, and wear behavior. This study also includes details on the specimen dimensions used in the preparation of spark plasma sintered compacts.