Development of a Master Sintering Curve for Al-Mg Alloy

Abstract

A new master sintering curve (MSC) is proposed for Al-Mg alloy in order to effectively design the pressure-assisted sintering process. In this work, hot pressing experiments of Al-Mg alloy powders are performed. The changes of relative density during hot pressing are measured for the various heating rates of 5 ∘ C/min, 10 ∘ C/min, and 20 ∘ C/min at the fixed pressure of 50 MPa. A work of sintering, designated as Θ, is introduced and defined as Θ( , ) = ∫ 0 (1/ )exp(− / ) . A work of sintering, Θ, could be interpreted as a measure for the amount of sintering work. The MSC in this work defines the relation between the apparent density and a work of sintering, Θ. Since the measurement of an apparent activation energy, , is very difficult, the correct value of is obtained numerically using a mean residual square method. Then, the master sintering curves for sintering of Al-Mg alloy powders are proposed for the sintering temperatures of 400 ∘ C and 500 ∘ C through scaling procedures. It is expected that the master sintering curves proposed in this work could help an engineer to design pressure-assisted sintering process for Al-Mg alloy.