In the FE model, the dimensions of the test-piece are the same as those used for the practical tests. Tetrahedral elements were used for container and powder. An initial relative density of 0.7 was defined to the powder as a continuum. The unified visco-plastic constitutve equations were integrated in DEFORM via a user defined subroutine. For the thermal analysis, the thermal properties for stainless steel published by Bogaard et al. [33] were used; for FGH96, the thermal properties of a similar nickel-based superalloy, IN718 [34],wereused. Effective thermal conductivity for superalloy powder of fully dense material at a temperature of 1150 1C is 28.75 W/m K, and thermal conductivity of stainless steel container at a temperature of 1150 1C is 22 W/m K.