| A study has been made on the kinetics of sintering of pellets prepared from U02
powders derived from ADU at different calcination temperatures. The powders were
calcined between 500° and 1500°C and the densification characteristics of the pellets
made from these were evaluated for different soaking times from 10 to 1000 mts at
sintering temperatures between 1000° and 1500°C. Data were analysed using the empirical
equation
D=C+K log Th t
where D is the density, C and K are constants and t denotes time.
It was found that (i) the progress of sintering, (ii) attainment of limiting densities
and (iii) variation in rates of densification at different temperatures and time can be
explained on the assumption that material movement (hence densification) is governed
by the number, nature and energy of crystalline defects (flaws) in the original powders. |
