MICROWAVE SINTERING OF METALS: MODELING OF MICROWAVE HEATING OF PARTICULATE METALS AND ITS APPLICATION IN SINTERING OF TUNGSTEN-BASED ALLOYS

Microwaves are well-recognized mode of heating material. On account of its fast and relatively uniform heating, microwaves have been envisaged as an ideal means to consolidate particulate materials through sintering. The exact nature of microwave- metal interaction has still not been elucidated in detail. Furthermore, a systematic evaluation of microwave sintered compact with those processed in a conventional furnace is as yet lacking. This study attempts to address these aspects. The first part critically compares the temperature distribution within cylindrical samples heated in both the furnace. It also investigates the effect of varying particle size and porosity on the heating behavior of a metallic particulate compact in a 2.45GHz multimode microwave furnace. The second part systematically investigates the efficacy of microwave vis a vis conventional sintering for a range of multi-component systems. The scope of these studies has been restricted to tungsten and its alloys. This book should help shed some light on this new and exciting technology, and should be especially useful to students and professionals in microwave processing.