Abstract

When a commercial prealloyed Fe-powder(Fe-5Cr-lMo-2Cu-0.5P-3C) is liquid phase sintered at 1160°C, liquid precipitates with various shapes form within solid grains during the initial stage of sintering. The shape of a liquid precipitate changes pith the increment of their size from sphere(with radius<0.3mutextrmm), a transient polyhedron with more than 7 faces(1~2 mutextrmm), cuboid(3~5 mutextrmm), and finally to sphere(>5 mutextrmm). The shapes of liquid precipitates closely resemble the growth shapes predicted on the basis of solid-liquid interfacial energy and the coherency strain energy with anisotropic elastic constants in the diffusion zone around the precipitates.