Cold sintering is an innovative low

Cold sintering is an innovative low-temperature processing technique which allows consolidation of several ceramics. Despite recent research activities on the cold sintering offunctional and structural ceramics, an analytical study accounting for consolidation and graingrowth phenomena is still missing in the literature. In this work, we provide a theoreticalanalysis of the mechanisms active during cold sintering. The analysis considers two coldsintering approaches, characterised by the application either of isostatic or uniaxial pressure.Physical phenomena and microstructural features are discussed in view of the applied cold sintering approach. The developed pressure-assisted densification models indicate that theprocesses governing densification during uniaxial cold sintering are more complex thanthose of conventional liquid phase sintering. A key role is played by the water/materialinteraction which promotes several effects such as formation of surface defects andsecondary phases, dynamic recrystallization and other phenomena still partially unknown.