Determining Factors in the Formation of Low-Temperature Ceramics Structure

A computer simulation approach to sintering of low-temperature ceramics has been developed within the framework of the micromechanics of heterogeneous media. It is taken into account that the reinforcement of the refractory component can be formed at different structural levels determined by the particle fraction size. The formation of the reinforcement of interacting refractory particles in individual sintered layer mesovolumes causes the pore structure formation, and the heterogeneous pore distribution through the mixture layer thickness in the initial compact determines the shrinkage anisotropy of the sintered ceramics. The conditions are determined in which the reinforcement of refractory components is formed at different structural levels. An initial block of layers formed of a mixture of refractory and low-melting components with a binder was obtained in the laboratory. Low-temperature ceramics samples were synthesized. The structure of a separate layer of the sintered ceramics was examined by X-ray tomography. Experiments were conducted to confirm the reliability of the sintering simulation results obtained with taking into account the effect of the heterogeneous component distribution and fractional composition of the initial mixture on the properties of low-temperature ceramics.