Ceramic Foam as a Core Material in Sandwich Structure Construction

Ceramic foam can be potentially used as a core material in sandwich structure construction. It can be produced by polymer replication process. Commercial polymeric sponge is used as template and dipped in ceramic particles slurry. After removing the excess slurry, drying and binder burn out during sintering process the ceramic is sintered to yield a replica of the original foam. Our study is focus set on the effect of solid loading on the properties of ceramic foam produced via polymer replication process. Solid content (porcelain) was varied at 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70% by weight and mixed to form slurry in distilled water medium. Properties of ceramic foam produced such as density and porosity were characterized using Archimedes methods. The mechanical properties were determined by conducting compressive test using Instron machine, and morphological study was performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The porosity was decreased from 71 to 40% by increasing the solid loading from 40 to 55 wt%. However, its density increased from 0.61 to 1.05 g/cm3 . Compressive strength also increased from 1.04 to 2.11 MP a with increasing solid loading. The increase in density and porosity was supported by SEM micrographs. SEM micrographs show that the amount of cells structure decreased and the thickness of the cell wall increased with increasing the amount of solid loading. It was found that an increase in solid loading from 40 to 55 wt% improved the absorption of slurry by polymeric sponge; and thus yield ceramic foam with good mechanical properties and more denser material.