Thermal Shock Resistance of Ceramic Foams

Abstract

Thermal shock behavior of a variety of open‐cell ceramic foams was evaluated using infrared heating and forced air cooling. The extent of damage after thermal shock was determined by a nondestructive, dynamic resonance technique. The damage in foams was found to be strongly dependent on cell size and weakly dependent on density. In zirconia‐based foams, damage was found to increase with an increase in zirconia content. A thermal stress resistance parameter R ′ f was derived to predict the effect of cell size and density on the damage incurred in foams. The experimental results were found to corroborate the predictions fairly well but a better approach was to compare the maximum applied thermal strains with the degree of damage.