Carbon syntactic foam mechanical properties testing

摘要

This project was started early in the redevelopment of the carbon syntactic foam. The new mixture of carbon microballoons with the APO-BMI resin had not been fully characterized, but that was the actual purpose of this effort. During the forming of the billets for these tests, a problem began to surface; but full understanding of the problem did not evolve until samples were cured and tests were conducted. Material compressive strengths varied between 200 and 990 psi where anything below 700 was rejected. The cure cycle was adjusted in an iterative manner in an attempt to maximize the material strength. The result of this effort was that the material strength was almost doubled and was achieving strengths of 1,500 psi toward the end of the parts produced. As a consequence, some of the strength tests actually run and reported in the text of this report may not reflect data that would be obtained today. The material strength was continuously being improved over the entire year. A complete series of compression test data is reported, but subsequent tensile and flexural strength tests were not repeated. At a time when it is considered that there are no further changes to be incorporated, a repeat of these tests would be warranted. Some development remains to be done on the carbon microballoon material. Improved carbon material is now available and its effect of the material strength should be evaluated.