Tin-wall hollow ceramic spheres from slurries. Final report

The overall objective of this effort was to develop a process for economically fabricating thin-wall hollow ceramic spheres from conventional ceramic powders using dispersions. This process resulted in successful production of monosized spheres in the mm size range which were point contact bonded into foams. Thin-wall hollow ceramic spheres of small (one to five millimeter) diameter have novel applications as high-temperature insulation and light structural materials when bonded into monolithic foams. During Phase 1 of this program the objective as to develop a process for fabricating thin-wall hollow spheres from powder slurries using the coaxial nozzle fabrication method. Based on the success during Phase 1, Phase 2 was revised to emphasize the assessment of the potential structural and insulation applications for the spheres and modeling of the sphere formation process was initiated. As more understanding developed, it was clear that to achieve successful structural application, the spheres had to be bonded into monolithic foams and the effort was further expanded to include both bonding into structures and finite element mechanical modeling which became the basis of Phase 3. Successful bonding techniques and mechanical modeling resulted but thermal conductivities were higher than desired for insulating activities. In addition, considerable interest had been express by industry for the technology. Thus the final Phase 4 concentrated on methods to reduce thermal conductivity by a variety of techniques and technology transfer through individualized visits. This program resulted in three Ph.D. theses and 10 M.S. theses and they are listed in the appropriate technical sections