Thermal shock resistance of ceramic foams

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.