Numerical Aspects of a Continuum Sintering Model Formulated in the Standard Dissipative Framework

Robust and computationally efficient numeric algorithms are required to simulate the sintering process of complex ceramic components by means of the finite element method. This work focuses on a thermodynamically consistent sintering model capturing the effects of both, viscosity and elasticity, within the standard dissipative framework. In particular, the temporal integration of the model by means of several implicit first and second order accurate one step time integration methods is discussed. It is shown in terms of numerical experiments on the material point level that the first order schemes exhibit poor performance when compared to second order schemes. Further numerical experiments indicate that the results translate directly to finite element simulations.