CAREER: Continuum Modeling of Sintering

烧结是粉末和多孔材料固结的重要工艺过程，广泛应用于从电子电路生产到大型模具制造的各个领域。连续介质方法能够预测烧结过程中的形状变形和密度分布，这在模拟粉末材料的净成形过程中是关键的，包括传统的粉末热处理和新的领域，如激光、微波和等离子烧结。从而成功地解决了粉末处理中最重要的问题之一-尺寸控制。目前在这一领域已经开展了相当多的研究活动，但在以下方面缺乏努力，这将是本研究的重点：(1)在烧结连续介质模型中考虑材料微结构特征的不同层次物理尺度的建模：(2)考虑相变等附加因素；(3)烧结稳定性的预测和烧结损伤标准的制定。职业生涯计划的教育部分包括本科生和研究生课程的发展，包括编写一本关于烧结物理和力学的教科书，该教科书将结合美国、东欧和西欧三大烧结科学学派发展的理论概念。

Sintering is an important technological process of powder and porous material consolidation used in various fields of manufacturing ranging from electronic circuit production to large-scale tooling. The continuum approach enables prediction of shape distortions and density distributions under sintering which are critical in modeling net-shape processing of powder materials including both conventional powder thermoprocessing and novel areas such as laser, microwave, and plasma sintering. Thereby one of the most important problems of powder treatment - dimension control - can be successfully resolved. A considerable amount of research activity is presently taking place in this area but there is a lack of effort in the following directions which will be the focus of the present research: (1) modeling at different hierarchical physical scales taking into consideration material micro-structure characteristics in continuum models of sintering; (2) taking into account additional factors such as phase transformations; (3) prediction of sintering stability and development of sintering damage criteria.The educational part of the career program incorporates the development of undergraduate and graduate courses including the preparation of a textbook on physics and mechanics of sintering which will combine theoretical concepts developed in three major schools (U.S., Eastern and Western European) of science of sintering.