Compressive Characterization of Single Porous SiC Hollow Particles

Silicon carbide hollow spheres are compression tested to understand their energy absorption characteristics. Two types of particles having tap densities of 440 kg/m(3) and 790 kg/m(3) (referred to as S1 and S2, respectively) were tested in the present study. The process used to fabricate the hollow spheres leads to porosity in the walls, which affects the mechanical properties of the hollow spheres. The porosity in the walls helps in obtaining mechanical bonding between the matrix material and the particle when such particles are used as fillers in composites. The single-particle compression test results show that the S1 and S2 particles had fracture energies of 0.38 x 10(-3) J and 3.18 x 10(-3) J, respectively. The modulus and fracture energy of the particles were found to increase with increasing diameter. However, the increasing trend shows variations because the wall thickness can vary as an independent parameter. Hollow particle fillers are used in polymer and metal matrices to develop porous composites called syntactic foams. The experimentally measured properties of these particles can be used in theoretical models to design syntactic foams with the desired set of properties for a given application.