In an effort to be more environmentally friendly, the construction industry is investing more in 'green' concretes and insulation materials. The purpose of this research was to create a porous foam using a geopolymer mixture and varying amounts of silica carbide sludge. By changing the amount of the sludge added, researchers could control what type of microstructure was produced. The effect of this variation on porosity and thermal properties was ...
As electronics get smaller and more powerful, the packaging that contains them must in turn become lighter with higher thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity. This study tested the effect of adding highly concentrated hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) fibers to liquid crystal polymer. The fibers were oriented in a way to achieve a high filler concentration, and the composites were then randomly added to a polyactide matrix. The researchers found that ...
Preventing steel from losing its strength during fires is crucial for safe evacuation and effective fire fighting. One of the most common protective coatings applied to steel and other construction materials today is intumescent paint. In this study, researchers created a potential new protective coating using a curable silicone base and varying volume amounts of expandable graphite between 5-25%. The key characteristic of these coatings is that they swell to ...
This paper investigates the effect sulphate exposure has on the thermal conductivity and mechanical strength of low density cement based foams, with and without microfiber reinforcement. This was done by exposing these cement foams to sulfphate over 90 days. The compressive strength and flexural toughness displayed a cyclic rise and fall for the plain sample, and the opposite for the reinforced sample. The thermal conductivity showed an initial rise, but then ...
The thermal properties of oil palm shell (OPS) are investigated to determine if it could be used as a lightweight aggregate for a concrete mixture. The thermal conductivity, diffusivity, and specific heat were all tested through a transient plane source (TPS) method. The thermal conductivity and diffusivity both increased as the volume fraction of OPS increased. This is because OPS is very porous which gives it an inherently low thermal ...
