Computer modeling of temperature distribution in the course of sintering of glass microspheres

Abstract

Composite materials obtained by sintering glass microspheres are considered the promising ones for the underwater technology. The high indicators of the hydrostatic strength combined with the heat and sound insulation properties are due to the microspheres maintaining their shapes as close to the spherical as possible. The computer model of the temperature distribution is developed based on the physical and chemical conceptions of the glass composites structure formation by sintering the glass microspheres of sodium borosilicate composition and processing the experimental results of the temperature measurements. The modeling methodology is based on the principles of decomposition of the task by the researcher and ranking the temperature and time parameters. The ratio of the hydrostatic strength to the density of the samples is taken as a functional criterion and the software application is written in the Python language. The experimental setup that is used for sintering the glass microspheres enables to study the temperature fields and thermal deformation processes in real-time conditions. The coefficients of thermal conductivity of sintering are determined by the regular mode method. The results obtained are aimed at solving one of the most important scientific and practical issues of developing technologies for manufacturing glass composites for strategic purpose.