Thermo-electro-mechanical modeling of spark plasma sintering processes accounting for grain boundary diffusion and surface diffusion

Modeling Thermo-electro-mechanical Beams in Sugar

INTRODUCTION Qconv SUGAR is a simulation package for 3D MEMS devices that utilizes nodal analysis techniques [1]. It has been shown that nodal analysis is significantly faster than other simulation techniques and can be just as accurate. The latest version of SUGAR (v2.0) includes various models for 2D and 3D beams, electrical beams, and gap closing actuators [2]. In addition, SUGAR is easily e...

Fabrication of Nanostructured Cu matrix Nanocomposites by High Energy Mechanical Milling and Spark Plasma Sintering

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a sintering process that is capable of sintering hard worked powders in short times. This technique was used to fabricate bulk Cu and Cu-SiC nanocomposites. Pure Cu and mixed powders of Cu including 4 vol% of SiC nanoparticles were mechanically alloyed for 25 h and sintered at 750˚C under vacuum condition by SPS method. Microstructures of the materials were chara...

Grain Boundary Diffusion and Fractal Interface Concept

The Influence of Grain Boundary Diffusion on the Electro-Optical Properties of CdTe/CdS Solar Cells

We report on a study of the effects of diffusion of metals through polycyrstalline CdTe thin films. The metals Ni, Pd, Cu, Cr, and Te are deposited onto the back surface of 10-μm thick CdTe/CdS device structures using room-temperature evaporation. We found that four out of the five metals produce significant changes in the photoluminescence (PL) of the near-junction CdTe material. These changes...

On Diffusion-Induced Grain-Boundary Motion

We consider a sharp interface model which describes diffusioninduced grain-boundary motion in a poly-crystalline material. This model leads to a fully nonlinear coupled system of partial differential equations. We show existence and uniqueness of smooth solutions.