• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.1756-1763
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• 2020

The paper studies spark plasma sintering (SPS) of industrially used UO₂-based fuel containing integral fuel burnable absorber (IFBA) of neutrons Gd₂O₃. Densification dynamics of pristine UO₂ powder and the one added with 2 and 8 wt% of Gd₂O₃ under ultrasonication in liquid has been studied under SPS conditions at 1050, 1250, and 1450 ℃. Effect of sintering temperature on phase composition as well as on O/U stoichiometry has been investigated for UO₂ SPS ceramics. Sintering of uranium dioxide added with Gd₂O₃ yields solid solution (U,Gd)O₂, which is isostructural to UO₂. SEM with EDX and metallography were implemented to analyze the microstructure of the obtained UO₂ ceramics and composite UO₂-Gd₂O₃ one, particularly, open porosity, defects, and Gd₂O₃ distribution were studied. Microhardness, compressive strength and density were shown to reduce after addition of Gd₂O₃. Obtained results prove the hypothesis on formation of stable pores in the system of UO₂-Gd₂O₃ due to Kirkendall effect that reduces sintering efficiency. The paper expands fundamental knowledge on pros and cons of fuel fabrication with IFBA using SPS technology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.360-361
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• 2006

Nanostructured aluminum powders were obtained by means of planetary ball milling with methanol as the Process Control Agent (PCA). The behavior, during milling, was considered measuring the microhardness and grain size at different milling times. Bulk near-full density samples were sintered using the Spark Plasma Sintering technology with different schedules: temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ and $550^{\circ}C$, pressure of 30 MPa and 60 MPa and different modes of applying the pressure were changed in order to understand the behavior during sintering. All the samples retained their nanostructure with an increase of the grain size from about 46 up to 70-90 nm.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.33-36
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• 2013

A bulk metallic glass-forming alloy, $Ni_{59}Zr_{20}Ti_{16}Si_2Sn_3$ metallic glass powders was used for good commercial availability and good formability in supercooled liquid region. In this study, the Ni-based metallic glass was synthesized using by high pressure gas atomized metallic glass powders. In order to create a bulk metallic glass sample, the $Ni_{59}Zr_{20}Ti_{16}Si_2Sn_3$ metallic glass powders with ball-milled Ni-based amorphous powder with 40%vol brass powder and Cu powder for 20 hours. The composite specimens were prepared by Spark Plasma Sintering for the precursor. The SPS was performed at supercooled liquid region of Ni-based metallic glass. The amorphous structure of the final sample was characterized by SEM, X-ray diffraction and DSC analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.516-521
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• 2016

Mo-Cu alloys have been widely used for heat sink materials, vacuum technology, automobile, and many other applications due to their excellent physical and electric properties. Especially, Mo-Cu composites with 5 ~ 20 wt.% copper are widely used for the heavy duty service contacts due to their excellent properties like low coefficient of thermal expansion, wear resistance, high temperature strength, and prominent electrical and thermal conductivity. In most of the applications, highly-dense Mo-Cu materials with homogeneous microstructure are required for better performance. In this study, Mo-Cu alloys were prepared by PBM (planetary ball milling) and SPS (spark plasma sintering). The effect of Cu with contents of 5~20 wt.% on the microstructure and thermal properties of Mo-Cu alloys was investigated.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.11
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• pp.1600-1604
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• 2017

Mo-Cu alloys have been widely used for heat sink materials, vacuum technology, automobile and many other applications due to their excellent physical and electronic properties. Especially, Mo-Cu composites with 5~20 wt% copper are widely used for the heavy duty service contacts due to their excellent properties like low coefficient of thermal expansion, wear resistance, high temperature strength and prominent electrical and thermal conductivity. In most of the applications, high dense Mo-Cu materials with homogeneous microstructure are required for high performance, which has led in turn to attempts to prepare ultra-fine and well-dispersed Mo-Cu powders in different ways, such as spray drying and reduction process, electroless plating technique, mechanical alloying process and gelatification-reduction process. However, most of these methods were accomplished at high temperature (typically degree), resulting in undesirable growth of large Cu phases; furthermore, these methods usually require complicated experimental facilities and procedure. In this study, Mo-Cu alloying were prepared by planetary ball milling (PBM) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) and the effect of Cu with contents of 5~20 wt% on the microstructure and properties of Mo-Cu alloy has been investigated.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.11
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• pp.853-859
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• 2011

Compressive deformation behavior of Al-10Si-5Fe-1Zr (wt%) alloy preform fabricated by SPS(spark plasma sintering) of gas atomized powder was investigated in the temperature range from 380 to $480^{\circ}C$ and at strain rates from $1.0{\times}10^{-3}$ to $1.0{\times}10^{0}s^{-1}$. Stress-strain curves showed a peak stress (${\sigma}_p$) during initial stage of deformation, followed by a steady state flow at all temperatures and strain rates tested. The (${\sigma}_p$) decreased with both increase in temperature and decrease in strain rate. Nearly full densification was found to occur in the compressively deformed specimens irrespective of test condition. TEM observation revealed a restricted grain growth during steady state flow.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.397-402
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• 2021

In this study, binderless-WC, WC-6 wt%Co, WC-6wt% 1 and 2.5 B₄C materials are fabricated by spark plasma sintering process (SPS process). Each fabricated WC material is almost completely dense, with a relative density up to 99.5 % after the simultaneous application of pressure of 60 MPa. The WC added Co and Co-B₄C materials resulted in crystalline growth. The WC with HCP crystal structure has respective interfacial energy (basal facet direction: 1.07 ~ 1.34 J·m^-2, prismatic direction: 1.43 ~ 3.02 J·m^-2) that depends on the grain growth direction. It is confirmed that the continuous grain growth, biased by the basal facet, which has relatively low energy, is promoted at the WC/Co interface. As abnormal grain growth takes place, the grain size increases more than twice from 0.37 to 0.8 um. It is found through analysis that the hardness property also greatly decreases from about 2661.4 to 1721.4 kg/mm², along with the grain growth.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.543-550
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• 2011

Conductive SiC-$ZrB_2$ composites were produced by subjecting a 40:60 (vol%) mixture of zirconium diboride (ZrB2) powder and ${\beta}$-silicon carbide (SiC) matrix to spark plasma sintering (SPS). Sintering was carried out for 5 min in an argon atmosphere at a uniaxial pressure and temperature of 50 MPa and $1500^{\circ}C$, respectively. The composite sintered at a heating speed of $25^{\circ}C$/min and an on/off pulse sequence of 12:2 was denoted as SZ12L. Composites SZ12H, SZ48H, and SZ10H were obtained by sintering at a heating speed of $100^{\circ}C$/min and at on/off pulse sequences of 12:2, 48:8, and 10:9, respectively. The physical, electrical, and mechanical properties of the SiC-$ZrB_2$ composites were examined and thermal image analysis of the composites was performed. The apparent porosities of SZ12L, SZ12H, SZ48H, and SZ10H were 13.35%, 0.60%, 12.28%, and 9.75%, respectively. At room temperature, SZ12L had the lowest flexural strength (286.90 MPa), whereas SZ12H had the highest flexural strength (1011.34 MPa). Between room temperature and $500^{\circ}C$, the SiC-$ZrB_2$ composites had a positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PTCR) and linear V-I characteristics. SZ12H had the lowest PTCR and highest electrical resistivity among all the composites. The optimum SPS conditions for the production of energy-friendly SiC-$ZrB_2$ composites are as follows: 1) an argon atmosphere, 2) a constant pressure of 50 MPa throughout the sintering process, 3) an on/off pulse sequence of 12:2 (pulse duration: 2.78 ms), and 4) a final sintering temperature of $1500^{\circ}C$ at a speed of $100^{\circ}C$/min and sintering for 5 min at $1500^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1205-1206
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• 2006

Dispersion-strengthened copper with $TiB_2$ was produced by ball-milling and spark plasma sintering (SPS).Ball-milling was performed at a rotation speed of 300rpm for 30 and 60min in Ar atmosphere by using a planetary ball mill (AGO-2). Spark-plasma sintering was carried out at $650^{\circ}C$ for 5min under vacuum after mechanical alloying. The hardness of the specimens sintered using powder ball milled for 60min at 300rpm increased from 16.0 to 61.8 HRB than that of specimen using powder mixed with a turbular mixer, while the electrical conductivity varied from 93.40% to 83.34%IACS. In the case of milled powder, hardness increased as milling time increased, while the electrical conductivity decreased. On the other hand, hardness decreased with increasing sintering temperature, but the electrical conductiviey increased slightly

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.176-181
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• 2003

Rapid densification of a SiC powder with additive 0.5 wt% $B_4$C was conducted by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The unique features of the process are the possibilities of using very fast heating rate and short holding time to obtain fully dense materials. The heating rate and applied pressure were kept to be $100^{\circ}C$/min and 40 MPa, while sintering temperature and soaking time varied to 1800, 1850, 1900 and $1950^{\circ}C$ and 10, 20 and 30 min, respectively. All of the SPS-sintered specimens at $1950^{\circ}C$ reached near-theoretical density. The XRD found that 3C-to-6H transformation at $1850^{\circ}C$. The microstructures of the rapidly densified SiC ceramics consisted of duplex microstructure with ultrafine equiaxed grains under 2 $\mu\textrm{m}$ and elongated grains of 0.5∼2 $\mu\textrm{m}$ wide, length 3∼10 $\mu\textrm{m}$. The biaxial strength increased with the increase of sintering time. Strength of 392.7 MPa was obtained with the fully densified specimen sintered at $1950^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, in agreement with the general tendency that strength increases with decreases pore. On the other hand, the fracture toughness shows the value of 2.17∼2.34 MPa$.$$m^{1/2}$ which might be due to the transgranular fracture mode.