Magnetic Field Generated during Electric Current-Assisted Sintering: From Health and Safety Issues to Lorentz Force Effects

Abstract

In the past decade, a renewed interest on electromagnetic processing of materials has motivated several investigations on the interaction between matter, electric and magnetic fields. These effects are primarily reconducted to the Joule heating and very little attention has been dedicated to the magnetic field contributions. The magnetic field generated during electric current-assisted sintering has not been widely investigated. Magnetism could have significant effects on sintering as it generates significant magnetic forces, resulting in inductive electrical loads and preferential heating induced by overlapping magnetic fields (i.e., proximity effect). This work summarizes the magnetic field effects in electric current-assisted processing; it focuses on health and safety issues associated with large currents (up to 0.4 MA); using FEM simulations, it computes the self-generated magnetic field during spark plasma sintering (SPS) to consolidate materials with variable magnetic permeability; and it quantifies the Lorentz force acting at interparticle contact points. The results encourage one to pay more attention to magnetic field-related effects in order to engineer and exploit their potentials.