Towards Optimized Pore Structure to Balance the Thermal-Mechanical Performance of Foamed Ceramic

Foamed ceramics with five different bulk densities are systematically investigated and new models are proposed to quantify the relationships between pore structure and material properties. Experimental data from our study and published literature are adopted to compare the fitting models. The results demonstrate that pore structure is important in controlling the thermal and mechanical properties and the models developed in this work are superior to others, especially for mechanical aspects. The pore structure optimization is exemplified for a hypothetical engineering case where specific property requirements are exerted, and a balance between thermal and mechanical performance has been successfully achieved.