Microcellular ceramic foams for radar absorbing structures

This is the final report of a one-year, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The goal of this project is to develop a lightweight, semi-structural, radar-absorbing ceramic foam that can be incorporated into aircraft exhaust systems to replace many of the currently used dense ceramic parts and thereby improve the radar cross section. Although the conventional processes for producing ceramic foams have not been able to provide materials that meet the design specifications for high strength at low density, we have developed and demonstrated a novel sol-gel emulsion process for preparing microcellular ceramic foams in which compositional and microstructural control is expected to provide the requisite high-temperature radar-absorption, strength-to-weight ratio, and thermal insulative properties