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OBSERVATION : Powdered metal compacts (copper) may be heated and pre-sintered in seconds by microwave fields. (a) Unheated; (b) Heated in electric field for 26 s; (c) Heated in magnetic field for 9 s. t ~ 5 s.
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OBSERVATION: Powdered metal compacts (copper) may be heated and pre-sintered in seconds by microwave fields. (a) Unheated; (b) Heated in electric field for 26 s; (c) Heated in magnetic field for 9 s. t ~ 5 s EVIDENCE: Microwave absorption in a powder metal compact depends on powder particle diameter, peaking near 8 μm, in agreement with theory. Compacts made from larger diameter particles (or those without an oxide layer) do not behave as individual absorbers due to electrical contact between particles. HYPOTHESIS: Metal particles act as individual absorbers and are rapidly heated by microwave field-induced currents. High local heating causes particles to coalesce, subsequently resulting in reduced absorption. RUI: Studies of the Heating and Sintering of Powdered Metals in Separate Electric and Magnetic Fields Using a Single Mode Microwave Cavity Darin T. Zimmerman, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona College, DMR 0406584
RUI: Studies of the Heating and Sintering of Powdered Metals in Separate Electric and Magnetic Fields Using a Single Mode Microwave Cavity Darin T. Zimmerman, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona College, DMR 0406584 EDUCATION 4 undergraduate researchers: John Diehl, Chris Lynch, Kelly Martin (now pursuing M.S. in Materials within our group), Chuck Smith. Postdoctoral researcher: JunKun Ma (now on the tenure-track at Eastern Louisiana Univ.) EXPERIENCE Students and postdoc gained experience in microwave techniques and characterization, data acquisition and analysis, computer simulations, and dissemination of results. Zimmerman research group (L to R): JunKun Ma, Nicholas Miskovsky, Chris Lynch, Kelly Martin, Chuck Smith, Gary Weisel, Darin Zimmerman. Not shown: John Diehl, Brock Weiss, Earnie Johnson. DISSEMINATION 2006 March Meeting of the American Physical Society (posters by Lynch and Martin) PM2006 World Congress on Powder Metals (undergraduate co-authors Diehl, Martin, and Smith) 2006 COMSOL Conference (undergraduate co-authors Martin and Smith) Journal of Applied Physics 101, 074906 (2007). Undergraduate co-authors, Diehl, Martin, and Smith.