Abstract
Although much interesting research on carbon foams has been published, their thermal conductivity and compression properties are not fully understood because of complexity of porous and brittle structure. These properties are critical for applying carbon foams in thermal management, composite tooling, and shock resistant applications. Special test methods are needed for accurate characterization of thermal and compression properties of carbon foams. This paper describes improved methods for measuring the thermal conductivity and compression properties of carbon foams. The thermal conductivity was measured and validated using a heat flow meter technique that was built in house and the compression properties were measured using end-potting technique. The results from improved techniques were compared with that of standard techniques. Compared to standard techniques, the improved techniques resulted in accurate measurement of thermal conductivity and compression properties with consistent and reproducible test data. Thus, these techniques are recommended for measuring the thermal conductivity and compression properties of carbon foams and similar open-cell brittle foams.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Gaies D, Faber KT (2002) Thermal properties of pitch-derived graphite foam. Lett Ed/Carbon 40:1131–1150
Klett JW, Hardy R, Romine E, Walls C, Burchell T (2000) High-thermal-conductivity, mesophase-pitch-derived carbon foams: effect of precursor on structure and properties. Carbon 38:953–973
Klett JW, Mcmillan AD, Gallego NC, Walls CA (2004) The role of structure on the thermal properties of graphitic foams. J Mater Sci 39:3659–3676
Moore EH (2005) Carbon foam round robin test method development. AFRL-ML-WP-TR-2006-4118
Bunning TJ, Jeon HG, Roy AK, Kearns KM, Farmer BL, Adams WW (2003) Polyurethane-inflitrated carbon foams: a coupling of thermal and mechanical properties. J Appl Polym Sci 87:2348–2355
Klett JW (2013) High thermal conductivity, mesophase pitch-derived carbon foams. http://Physics.lbl.gov/~gilg/ATLASUpgradeRandD/HighKFoam/Graphite_Foams.pdf. Accessed 25 May 2013
Chen C, Kennel EB, Stiller AH, Stansberry PG, Zondlo JW (2006) Carbon foam derived from various precursors. Carbon 44:1535–1543
Min G, Zengmin S, Weidong C, Hui L (2007) Anisotropy of mesophase pitch-derived carbon foams. Carbon 45:141–145
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support by Wright Materials Research Co. Grant # 0II-0620353 and NASA Grant # NNX09AV08A. The authors also thank Touchstone Research Laboratory for providing the carbon foam materials.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer India
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gowthaman, S., Babu, J.M., Mathiyalagan, P., Shivakumar, K. (2014). Improved Methods for Thermal and Compression Testing of Carbon Foams. In: Bajpai, R., Chandrasekhar, U., Arankalle, A. (eds) Innovative Design, Analysis and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1871-5_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1871-5_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-1870-8
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-1871-5
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)