Investigation of the experiment and simulation on TiH2 powder packing by a novel irregular 3D model

Abstract

Density and porosity have an important influence on powder metallurgy products, and it is feasible to predict the tap density of powder by simulating the packing of powder. Analysis models of spherical and simple geometric have been developed to predict the packing density of the powder. In this study, a novel particle model with complex three-dimensional (3D) morphology was established to simulate the packing process of titanium hydride powder with binary particle size distribution. The results have indicated that when the particle size ratio and the volume ratio of fine powder to coarse powder were 1:3 and 1:1, respectively, the sintered sample reaches its optimum sintered density of 99.24%. Compared with these samples sintered by single-scale powder, the size and distribution of residual pores reduced significantly with the application of mixed powders, which is beneficial to the mechanical properties of powder metallurgy products.