Effects of temperature and thermal cycles on the mechanical properties of expanded polystyrene foam

2021 ◽  
pp. 109963622110631
Author(s):  
Muhammad Naeem Tahir ◽  
Ehab Hamed

Understanding the effects of high temperature and thermal cycles on the mechanical properties of expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam is critical for its use in sandwich panels. This paper presents an experimental investigation of these effects in typical environmental conditions that exist in construction applications. A total of 117 small specimens were cut from metal-faced sandwich panels with EPS core and were exposed to different numbers of thermal cycles and/or sustained high temperatures. The specimens were then loaded under compression, tension, and four-point bending for evaluating the degradation of the mechanical properties of the foam. The thermal cycles reflect typical surface temperature during daily summer conditions, with a period of 24 h each and with a temperature varying between 24°C to 80°C. The results show that the modulus of elasticity of EPS foam in compression reduced by about 38% after exposure to thermal cycles for 45 days, whereas the tensile and shear moduli reduced by about 5.7% and 13.8%, respectively. Exposure to sustained high temperature after thermal cycles led to larger degradation of the elastic and shear moduli in the range of 38%–50%. These degradations can lead to early failures in applications that rely on the EPS foam as a structural component like in insulating sandwich panels.

Author(s):  
Fumitada Iguchi ◽  
Hiromichi Kitahara ◽  
Hiroo Yugami

The mechanical properties of Ni-YSZ cermets at high temperature in reduction atmosphere were evaluated by the four points bending method. We studied the influences of reduction and thermal cycles, i.e. a cycle from R.T. to 800°C, to flexural strength and Young’s modulus. The flexural strength of Ni-YSZ at room temperature was lower than that of NiO-YSZ by about 10 to 20% mainly caused by the increment of porosity. But, the flexural strength of Ni-YSZ at 800°C was drastically decreased by an half of that at R.T. In addition, the stress–strain diagram of Ni-YSZ at 800°C indicated that it showed weak ductility. The maximum observed strain was over 0.5% at 30MPa. On the contrary, NiO-YSZ showed only brittlely at 800°C. The difference was caused by Ni metal in the Ni-YSZ cermets. Therefore, it was expected that Ni-YSZ is easily deformed in operation, though residual stress between an anode and an electrolyte was low. The influence of thermal cycles to flexural strength and Young’s modulus was not observed clearly. At the same time, the differences of microstructure were not observed. Therefore, it was concluded that the cycle does not change mechanical properties significantly.


2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (18) ◽  
pp. 2461-2474 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Banea ◽  
F. S. M. de Sousa ◽  
L. F. M. da Silva ◽  
R. D. S. G. Campilho ◽  
A. M. Bastos de Pereira

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 3008
Author(s):  
Lei Shang ◽  
Ye Wu ◽  
Yuchao Fang ◽  
Yao Li

For aerospace applications, honeycomb sandwich panels may have small perforations on the cell walls of the honeycomb core to equilibrate the internal core pressure with external gas pressure, which prevent face-sheet/core debonding due to pressure build-up at high temperature. We propose a new form of perforation on the cell walls of honeycomb sandwich panels to reduce the influence of the perforations on the cell walls on the mechanical properties. In this paper, the high temperature mechanical properties of a new vented Ti-6Al-4V honeycomb sandwich panel were investigated. A vented Ti-6AL-4V honeycomb sandwich panel with 35Ti-35Zr-15Cu-15Ni as the filler alloy was manufactured by high-temperature brazing. The element distribution of the brazed joints was examined by means of SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and EDS (energy-dispersive spectroscopy) analyses. Compared to the interaction between the face-sheets and the brazing filler, the diffusion and reaction between the honeycomb core and the brazing filler were stronger. The flatwise compression and flexural mechanical properties of the vented honeycomb sandwich panels were investigated at 20, 160, 300, and 440 °C, respectively. The flatwise compression strength, elastic modulus, and the flexural strength of the vented honeycomb sandwich panels decreased with the increase of temperature. Moreover, the flexural strength of the L-direction sandwich panels was larger than that of the W-direction sandwich panels at the same temperature. More importantly, the vented honeycomb sandwich panels exhibited good compression performance similar to the unvented honeycomb sandwich panels, and the open holes on the cell walls have no negative effect on the compression performance of the honeycomb sandwich panels in these conditions. The damage morphology observed by SEM revealed that the face-sheets and the brazing zone show ductile and brittle fracture behaviors, respectively.


Author(s):  
Hsiu-Tao Chang ◽  
Chih-Kuang Lin ◽  
Chien-Kuo Liu

The high temperature mechanical properties in a glass-ceramic sealant of BaO-B2O3-Al2O3-SiO2 system was studied by four-point bending test at room temperature, 550°C, 600°C, 650°C, and 700°C, to investigate the variation of Young’s modulus, flexural strength, and stress relaxation. Weibull statistic analysis was applied to describe the fracture strength of the given glass ceramic. The crystalline phase was produced by controlled heat treatment and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicated that the flexural strength was enhanced at high temperatures when the testing temperature was below the glass transition temperature (Tg). This was presumably due to a crack healing effect taking place at high temperature. Significant stress relaxation for the given glass ceramic was observed to generate extremely large deformation without breaking the specimens when the testing temperature was set at 700°C.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nanik Hendrawati ◽  
Yulia Irna Lestari ◽  
Putri Anggraini Wulansari

Biodegradable foam is an alternative packaging to replace the expanded polystyrene foam packaging currently in use.   Starch has been used to produce foam because of  its low cost, low density, low toxicity, and  biodegradability. Chitosan has been added to improve mechanical properties of product . The   effect of  variation on chitosan amount  and  starch types  was investigated in this study.  The amount of  chitosan  was varied as 0; 5; 10; 15; 20; 25; and  30 % w/w and starch types were used in this research were cassava, Corn and sago starch. Biodegradable  foam was produced by using baking process method, all of material (Starch, Chitosan solution,  Magnesium Stearate, Carrageenan, Glyserol, Protein Isolates  dan polyvinil alcohol (PVOH)  were mixed with kitchen aid mixer. The mixture was poured  into mold and heated in an oven at 125 oC for 1 hour. Then, foam was tested for its mechanical properties, water absorption  and biodegradability and  morphology (SEM).  The results show that  foam made from sago starch had lower water absortion than those made from cassava and corn starch.   While, foam made from cassava starch  was more biodegradable than the other foam.  Biodegradable foam based sago starch and 30 % w/w of Chitosan adition  gave the  best performence in tensile stress that  is 20 Mpa


2017 ◽  
Vol 867 ◽  
pp. 245-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rajkumar ◽  
B. Arulmurugan ◽  
M. Manikandan ◽  
R. Karthick ◽  
S. Kaviprasath

The demand for lightweight structures made of sandwich panels is ever increasing in many Industrial sectors. Numerous research efforts have been taken by various researchers in this area in terms of weight and cost reduction. Sandwich panel is a composite structure and it is an excellent alternative material in place of weight reduction without sacrificing its strength and stiffness characteristics. The geometrical characteristics of honeycomb core sandwich panels as well as their physical and mechanical properties such as compressive strength, flexural stiffness, core shear moduli, shear strength and stiffness are analyzed. The sandwich panels are available in various shapes and sizes to the service requirement. The commercially available sandwich panels have different core materials such as foams, FRPs and metallic and non metallic materials. The structure of the core typically varies as truss type and honeycomb. The face sheets and the core materials are bonded using thermo-set resins.


Author(s):  
D. R. Clarke ◽  
G. Thomas

Grain boundaries have long held a special significance to ceramicists. In part, this has been because it has been impossible until now to actually observe the boundaries themselves. Just as important, however, is the fact that the grain boundaries and their environs have a determing influence on both the mechanisms by which powder compaction occurs during fabrication, and on the overall mechanical properties of the material. One area where the grain boundary plays a particularly important role is in the high temperature strength of hot-pressed ceramics. This is a subject of current interest as extensive efforts are being made to develop ceramics, such as silicon nitride alloys, for high temperature structural applications. In this presentation we describe how the techniques of lattice fringe imaging have made it possible to study the grain boundaries in a number of refractory ceramics, and illustrate some of the findings.


Author(s):  
H.-J. Kleebe ◽  
J.S. Vetrano ◽  
J. Bruley ◽  
M. Rühle

It is expected that silicon nitride based ceramics will be used as high-temperature structural components. Though much progress has been made in both processing techniques and microstructural control, the mechanical properties required have not yet been achieved. It is thought that the high-temperature mechanical properties of Si3N4 are limited largely by the secondary glassy phases present at triple points. These are due to various oxide additives used to promote liquid-phase sintering. Therefore, many attempts have been performed to crystallize these second phase glassy pockets in order to improve high temperature properties. In addition to the glassy or crystallized second phases at triple points a thin amorphous film exists at two-grain junctions. This thin film is found even in silicon nitride formed by hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) without additives. It has been proposed by Clarke that an amorphous film can exist at two-grain junctions with an equilibrium thickness.


Author(s):  
K Das Chowdhury ◽  
R. W. Carpenter ◽  
W. Braue

Research on reaction-bonded SiC (RBSiC) is aimed at developing a reliable structural ceramic with improved mechanical properties. The starting materials for RBSiC were Si,C and α-SiC powder. The formation of the complex microstructure of RBSiC involves (i) solution of carbon in liquid silicon, (ii) nucleation and epitaxial growth of secondary β-SiC on the original α-SiC grains followed by (iii) β>α-SiC phase transformation of newly formed SiC. Due to their coherent nature, epitaxial SiC/SiC interfaces are considered to be segregation-free and “strong” with respect to their effect on the mechanical properties of RBSiC. But the “weak” Si/SiC interface limits its use in high temperature situations. However, few data exist on the structure and chemistry of these interfaces. Microanalytical results obtained by parallel EELS and HREM imaging are reported here.


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