Contact phenomena in a sphere-plane single - Crystal system

Theoretical considerations, experimentally established facts, and elementary estimates lead to the conclusion that the initial stage of the sintering process may be accompanied by plastic deformation, while a later stage is controlled by diffusion-dislocation flow, in which mass transport responsible for growth of the contact neck takes place under conditions of self-consistency of the dislocation loop generation and dissolution processes. This article is concerned only with monocrystalline objects, but the conclusions arrived at in it can be extended also to real polycrystalline systems. This will necessitate regarding the structural elements of a polycrystal as obstacles to dislocation motion characterized by different degrees of penetrability. An opportunity will thus arise in particular to obtain fuller information on the initial stage of sintering of powder compacts, which are characterized by high sintering activity.