Syntactic foams are light weight particulate composites that use hollow particles
(microballoons) as reinforcement in a polymer resin matrix. High strength microballoons
provide closed cell porosity which helps in reducing weight of the material. Due to their wide range of possible applications such as in aerospace and marine structures, it is desirable to modify the physical and mechanical properties of syntactic foams as per the requirements of an
application. Various filler materials can be used to modify the foam microstructure to attain
these desired properties.
Compression tests have revealed that high density syntactic foams demonstrate poor damage tolerance and low fracture strain, when compared with low density syntactic foams, which exhibit higher damage tolerance and fracture strains. The present study deals with increasing the fracture strain and damage tolerance properties of high density syntactic foams. An approach of modifying the matrix resin with the incorporation of filler particles as a third
phase is adopted, resulting in hybrid syntactic foam. Two types of high performance hybrid
foam composites are developed using waste tire rubber particles and low cost nanoclay particle
respectively. Such highly damage tolerant hybrid foams will be useful as sandwich core material
in automobile, aerospace, and marine structures.
An analytical study is performed in order to observe the behavior of microballoons in
syntactic foams upon loading. All hybrid foams are characterized for compressive strength and
flexural strength properties. Rubber hybrid foams are further characterized for hygrothermal
properties.
Mechanical properties of hybrid foams are compared with those of plain syntactic foams. Changes in properties are correlated with the change in structural composition due to
incorporation of rubber and nanoclay particles respectively. High magnification Scanning
Electron Microscopy (SEM) is used to study microstructure of all the specimens. Change in
properties of rubber type hybrid foams due to change in the size of rubber particles is studied. The dispersion and intercalation of nanoclay particles in nanoclay hybrid foams is studied using Transmission Electron Microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
Deformation behavior of hybrid foams and pure syntactic foams are compared and correlated to the presence of different types of particles in them.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-07142005-151356 |
| Date | 15 July 2005 |
| Creators | Maharsia, Rahul R |
| Contributors | George Stanley, Charles McAllister, George Z. Voyiadjis, Eyassu Woldesenbet, H. Dwayne Jerro |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07142005-151356/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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