Porosity of nickel nanopowder compacts consolidated by gas extrusion

The method of hot gas extrusion differs from other methods of metal pressure treatment in that the processed material is subjected to intense plastic deformation by extrusion under conditions of high isostatic pressure of inert gas and heating in the area of plastic deformation. The method makes it possible to process powder materials, while inevitably there is a need to control mechanical properties by controlling porosity and pressure inside the pores. The paper presents a method for calculating the pressure inside the pores from the minimum size of the closed pore. The pore pressure was evaluated on materials obtained by the consolidation of nickel nanopowders by hot gas extrusion. Quantitative processing of the material cross-section view images obtained by scanning electron microscopy showed that the minimum pore size is 220 nm. The formula for calculating the pore pressure is derived from the formula for calculating the critical pore radius. It takes into account the external impact pressure (the gas pressure during the extrusion process was equal to 400 MPa), the surface tension coefficient and the yield strength of nickel (at the extrusion start temperature of 910 °С), as well as the minimum pore radius. The proposed method for calculating the pressure inside a closed pore will allow us to evaluate the mechanical properties of materials obtained by various methods of powder metallurgy.