SC 740 Presentation Review

 By Deborah Dent

Simulation of Microstructural Evolution in

Sintering by the Method of Lines

 by

Wen Zhang

Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Louisiana Tech University

Ruston, LA 71272-3189

November 19, 1997

Dr. Zhange presented a very interesting talk on Sintering, which is a widely used material manufacturing process. She began her presentation with visual examples the process of sintering powder. She showed than from a Micro-structural point of view, the ideal situation allows the process to be modeled by a surface and grain boundary diffusion.

She then presented detail information on the numerical methods used in the process. She stated that the mathematical model involved a high order nonlinear time dependent PDE with a moving boundary. Two ODE solvers were used in the computations: LSODE by Hindmarsh and DASSL by Petzold. Dr. Zhange concluded her presentation by presenting the results of various numerical computations, simulation results, and graphical representations of the results.