Furthermore, more efficient engines will lead to significant energy savings. Environmentally, more efficient, cleaner-burning engines and furnaces will create less pollution. Finally, the advancesmade in the mullite system will be applicable to the toughening of other ceramic materials. Most ceramics are fabricated by the sintering of consolidated powders. Furthermore, there is a continual effort towards improving the performanceof advanced ceramics.
Practical ceramics are far more complex than the simple compositions treated by sintering theory.
The focus of the research is to understand how key parameters influence the sintering and microstructural evolution of ceramics. These parameters include the effect of heating schedule, the competition between coarsening and sintering, the occurrence of a solid state reaction during sintering, the influence of dopants, and the influence of heterogeneities. The application of sintering theory to practical, complex ceramics used in industrial applications forms the focus of the research. Factors being investigated include optimization of the heating cycle, effect of green body microstructure, constrained sintering of multilayered ceramics and process modeling of the densification behavior.