Thermal Expansion Properties of Fused Borosilicate Syntactic Foams

Abstract

The thermal properties such the coefficient thermal expansion, α (CTE) of fused borosilicate syntactic foam was determined using dimensional changes of a temperature gradient plot. The CTE was measured and found to be achieved the value lower than the vinyl ester resin matrix when mixing with different weight percentages of the glass microballoon ranging from 2 wt.% to 10 wt.% using a thermomechanical analyzer (TMA). These results showed that it has a strong relationship with the syntactic foam physical properties such density, radius ration,cavity porosity and matrix porosity. Experimental results showed that the CTE decreases when glass microballoons are added into the composites measured at different temperatures ranging from 30 °C to 70 °C. The CTE from the experimental results were also analysed using Turner’s modification model for composites for its suitability for thermal expansion of syntactic foams.