Recently, local melting of the particle surfaces confirmed the formation of spark and plasma during spark plasma sintering, which explains the rapid densification mechanism via liquid. A model for rapid densification of flash sintered ceramics by liquid film capillary was presented, where liquid film forms by local melting at the particle contacts, due to Joule heating followed by thermal runaway. Local densification is by particle rearrangement led by spreading of the liquid, due to local attractive capillary forces. Electrowetting may assist this process. The asymmetric nature of the powder compact represents an invasive percolating system.
Keywords: ceramics; densification; electric conductivity; electric field; flash sintering; invasion percolation; melting; spark plasma sintering.