Mechanical behavior of glass fiber‐reinforced Nylon‐6 syntactic foams and its Young's modulus numerical study

Modified hollow glass microspheres composite isocyanate-based polyimide foam with improving mechanical and thermal insulation properties

In this work, hollow glass microspheres (HGM) were introduced into the polyimide matrix as an effective reinforcement filler to improve the mechanical and thermal insulation properties of the polyimide foams (PIF). The HGM was surface-modified with the silane coupling agent to enhance the interfacial compatibility with PIF. Experimental results revealed that the average cellular diameter of PIF decreased obviously with the addition of the modified HGM (M-HGM). The apparent density of foams also increased from 15.85 to 18.34 kg/m3 when the M-HGM combination was changed from 0 to 12 percent (wt.%). Compared with the pure PIF, the composite foams added 8 wt.% M-HGM showed high compression strength (65 kPa) and compression modulus (1147 kPa), resulting in a distinct enhancement in mechanical properties. Furthermore, the addition of M-HGM filler also improved the thermal insulation performance of PIF, which exhibited the minimum thermal conductivity of 29.48 mW·m−1·K−1 with 8 wt.% M-HGM. Thus, considering the improved mechanical and insulation properties of the prepared PIF, it could be a promising candidate for the high temperature-resistant thermal insulating applications.

High-Performance of a Thick-Walled Polyamide Composite Produced by Microcellular Injection Molding

Lightweight moldings obtained by microcellular injection molding (MIM) are of great significance for saving materials and reducing energy consumption. For thick-walled parts, the standard injection molding process brings some defects, including a sink mark, warpage, and high shrinkage. Polyamide 66 (PA66)/glass fiber (GF) thick-walled moldings were prepared by MuCell^® technology. The influences of moldings thickness (6 and 8.4 mm) and applied nitrogen pressure (16 and 20 MPa) on the morphology and mechanical properties were studied. Finally, the microcellular structure with a small cell diameter of about 30 μm was confirmed. Despite a significant time reduction of the holding phase (to 0.3 s), high-performance PA66 GF30 foamed moldings without sink marks and warpage were obtained. The excellent strength properties and favorable impact resistance while reducing the weight of thick-walled moldings were achieved. The main reason for the good results of polyamide composite was the orientation of the fibers in the flow direction and the large number of small nitrogen cells in the core and transition zone. The structure gradient was analysed and confirmed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, X-ray micro computed tomography (micro CT) and finite element method (FEM) simulation.

Numerical Study Using Microstructure Based Finite Element Modeling of the Onset of Convective Heat Transfer in Closed-Cell Polymeric Foam

The thermal performance of closed-cell foams as an insulation device depends on the thermal conductivity. In these systems, the heat transfer mode associated with the convective contribution is generally ignored, and studies are based on the thermo-physical properties that emerge from the conductive contribution, while others include a term for radiative transport. The criterion found in the literature for disregarding convective heat flux is the cell diameter; however, the cell size for which convection is effectively suppressed has not been clearly disclosed, and it is variously quoted in the range 3–10 mm. In practice, changes in thermal conductivity are also attributed to the convection heat transfer mode; hence, natural convection in porous materials is worthy of research. This work extends the field of study of conjugate heat transfer (convection and conduction) in cellular materials using microstructure-based finite element analysis. For air-based insulating materials, the criteria to consider natural convection (Ra=103) is met by cavities with sizes of 9.06 mm; however, convection is developed into several cavities despite their sizes being lower than 9.06 mm, hence, the average pore size that can effectively suppress the convective heat transfer is 6.0 mm. The amount of heat transported by convection is about 20% of the heat transported by conduction within the foam in a Ra=103, which, in turn, produces an increasing average of the conductivity of about 4.5%, with respect to a constant value.