MANUFACTURE AND COMPRESSION PROPERTIES OF SYNTACTIC FOAMS

A study has been made of the processability, bulk density and uniaxial compression properties of a syntactic foam system with varying volume fractions of phenolic microballoons. Short-term compression tests sho wed that the compression yield strength and initial tangent modulus of elasticity were linearly dependent on the bulk density (and the volum e fraction of microballoons). The microballoon concentration and resin binder composition was found to be crucial to the ease of manufacturi ng syntactic foams.