Influence of the heating rate on sintering shrinkage of plain iron

The effect of heating rate on shrinkage of plain iron was investigated on green specimens with different green densities: 6.5, 6.9 and 7.3 g cm−3. On increasing the heating rate, the anisothermal shrinkage in the alpha field starts at higher temperatures but its amount does not change. The activation energy corresponds to that of dislocation pipe diffusion, confirming the role of the structural defects accumulated in the particles during cold compaction. The isothermal shrinkage increases on increasing the heating rate, likely due to the effect of surface diffusion at lower temperatures that reduce the driving force, without a measurable effect on shrinkage. The effect of green density is the same for anisothermal and isothermal shrinkage, with a minimum (in absolute value) at the intermediate green density.