Spark plasma sintering – Assisted embedding sapphire fiber optic sensor into stainless steel 316L: Thermo-electric-mechanical finite element analysis

This research incorporates a finite element modeling (FEM) approach to investigate thermo-electric-mechanical coupled behavior in the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process to embed sapphire fiber optic sensor into stainless steel 316L. This SPS-assisted sensor embedding process reported from the literature demonstrates the successful integration of the sapphire fibers within stainless steel 316L powders, achieving high density and strong fiber-powder bonding. The process parameters involve temperature gradient, pressure, and electrical charge input, which significantly influence this bonding. In this study, the FEM simulations were used to model the temperature and stress distribution during the SPS process to investigate temperature heterogeneity and stress gradients within the sintered material embedded with fiber. The results highlight the role of electric current density in influencing the thermal and mechanical behavior of the material. These findings provide insights for optimizing the SPS process conditions to improve the material properties to effectively integrate the optical fibers into sintered powder material for high-temperature applications.