Three Dimensional Monte Carlo Simulation of Isotropic Coarsening of Particles in Liquid Phase

Coarsening of particles during liquid phase sintering is known to be an example of Ostwald ripening. This coarsening process, in a fully wetting system, is simulated in three dimensions with a kinetic Monte Carlo model. The results from the simulation for microstructures, kinetics and particle size distributions are compared to available experimental findings. It is found that the average particle volume increases linearly with time and that the particle size distributions are consistent with those obtained experimentally, as in the W-Ni-Fe and Sn-Pb systems. Introduction The phenomenon of liquid phase sintering has been studied extensively not only because of its wide applicability to engineering materials but also because the presence of a liquid phase simultaneously increases both the density of the resulting compacts and the rate of particle coarsening. Particle coarsening in liquid phase sintering is believed to occur by Ostwald ripening [1], where mass transports through the surrounding liquid medium among particles with the solubility variation determined by the Thomson-Freundlich equation [2]