Investigate the forming quality of MoSi2 coating in spark plasma sintering with finite element model

MoSi₂ based materials are widely used as semiconductor electrodes, corrosion and wearing resistant parts due to its good mechanical properties, excellent oxidation resistance and good electrical conductivity. Sparking plasma sintering (SPS) is a common preparation method for MoSi₂ coating while it’s complicated to explore the optimized parameters. Therefore, simulation associated experiment verification method is usually adopted to reduce the cost. This paper mainly discusses the digital simulation of effects of sintering parameters (time, pressure and temperature) on the densification of MoSi₂ coating. Densification of the coating could be improved with increasing of sintering pressure, temperature and duration. Meanwhile, pressure and temperature have complementary characteristics in terms of density. Therefore, the appropriate parameter of 1400°C/40MPa/15min was obtained through orthogonal simulation. Finally, the MoSi₂ coating was prepared on Nb alloy under the foregoing parameter and the results indicated the reliability of the simulation results.