Spark effect on the densification of SiCp/Al composites by SPS

Abstract

SiCp/Al composites containing high volume fraction of SiC particles were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS), and their thermophysical properties, such as thermal conductivity (TC) and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), were characterized. The electric field in the vacuum column was calculated and the generation condition of the spark was analyzed. Spark can be generated by a low current if the cavity in the green body is large enough. A high relative density of the composites was successfully achieved through the optimization of sintering parameters. The measured TCs of the SiCp/Al composites fabricated by SPS are higher than 195 W/ m · K.

Keywords

spark plasma sintering / SiCp/Al composites / thermal conductivity / coefficient of thermal expansion / densification

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