The changes in brick porosity upon firing (700 up to 1100 � C) and its relation to the mineralogical composition are examined. Two types of raw clay with a composition representative of that used in brick-making industry were selected to manufacture the bricks: one contains notable amounts of carbonates, with a grain size of under 1 mm, and the other is predominantly quartzitic and lacking in carbonates. We demonstrate that the presence or absence of carbonates strongly influences the porosity development and, therefore, the brick texture and physical-mechanical properties. The carbonates in the raw clay promote the formation of fissures and of pores under 1 mm in size when the bricks are fired between 800 and 1000 � C. The absence of carbonates results in a continuous reduction in porosity and a significant increase in the pore fraction with a radius (r) > 1 mm as the firing temperature rises and smaller pores coalesce. Porosity and pore size distribution results obtained from the combined use of hydric tests (HT), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and digital image analysis (DIA) of scanning electron microscopy photomicrographs are compared. A clear correlation between the water absorption and drying behaviour of the bricks and the porosity plus pore size distribution is observed. DIA discloses the evolution of size, shape and connectivity of macropores (r > 1 mm) and evidences that MIP results underestimate the macropore content. Conversely, MIP gives a good estimate of the open porosity and of the distribution of pores with r <1 mm. It is concluded that the combined use of these complementary techniques helps to fully characterise the pore system of bricks. These results as well as the study of the evolution of the speed of ultrasound waves vs. time yield useful information to evaluate the bricks physical–mechanical behaviour and durability. The relevance of these findings in the conservation of historic buildings is discussed. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of mineralogy and firing temperature on the porosity of bricks

Cold spray is a solid-state coating deposition technology which has recently been applied as an additive manufacturing process to fabricate individual components and to repair damaged components. In comparison with fusion-based high-temperature additive manufacturing processes, cold spray additive manufacturing (CSAM) has been shown to retain the original properties of the feedstock, to produce oxide-free deposits, and to not adversely influence underlying substrate materials during manufacture. Therefore, CSAM is attracting considerable attention from both scientific and industrial communities. Although CSAM is an emerging additive manufacturing technology, a body of work has been carried out by various research groups and the technology has been applied across a range of manufacturing areas. The purpose of this paper is to systematically summarize and review the CSAM-related work to date.

Cold spray additive manufacturing and repair: Fundamentals and applications

Biomaterials include bioceramics, biometals, biopolymers and biocomposites and they play important roles in the replacement and regeneration of human tissues. However, dense bioceramics and dense biometals pose the problem of stress shielding due to their high Young’s moduli compared to those of bones. On the other hand, porous biomaterials exhibit the potential of bone ingrowth, which will depend on porous parameters such as pore size, pore interconnectivity, and porosity. Unfortunately, a highly porous biomaterial results in poor mechanical properties. To optimise the mechanical and the biological properties, porous biomaterials with graded/gradient porosity, pores size, and/or composition have been developed. Graded/gradient porous biomaterials have many advantages over graded/gradient dense biomaterials and uniform or homogenous porous biomaterials. The internal pore surfaces of graded/gradient porous biomaterials can be modified with organic, inorganic, or biological coatings and the internal pores themselves can also be filled with biocompatible and biodegradable materials or living cells. However, graded/gradient porous biomaterials are generally more difficult to fabricate than uniform or homogenous porous biomaterials. With the development of cost-effective processing techniques, graded/gradient porous biomaterials can find wide applications in bone defect filling, implant fixation, bone replacement, drug delivery, and tissue engineering.

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Graded/Gradient Porous Biomaterials

The mechanical properties of Al2O3-based porous ceramics fabricated from pure Al2O3 powder and the mixtures with Al(OH)3 were investigated. The fracture strength of the porous Al2O3 specimens sintered from the mixture was substantially higher than that of the pure Al2O3 sintered specimens because of strong grain bonding that resulted from the fine Al2O3 grains produced by the decomposition of Al(OH)3. However, the elastic modulus of the porous Al2O3 specimens did not increase with the incorporation of Al(OH)3, so that the strain to failure of the porous Al2O3 ceramics increased considerably, especially in the specimens with high porosity, because of the unique pore structures related to the large original Al(OH)3 particles. Fracture toughness also increased with the addition of Al(OH)3 in the specimens with higher porosity. However, fracture toughness did not improve in the specimens with lower porosity because of the fracture-mode transition from intergranular, at higher porosity, to transgranular, at lower porosity.

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Porous Alumina Ceramics Fabricated by the Decomposition of Aluminum Hydroxide

It has been well established that ALPORAS® foams is a strain rate sensitive material However, the strain rate effect is not well quantified as it is not unusual for strain rate to vary during high speed compression Moreover, according to previous research, aluminium foams, especially ALPORAS® foams, behave differently at low and high strain rates Therefore, different plastic deformation mechanisms are expected for low and high strain rate loadings as a result of micro-inertia of cell walls In this paper, the strain rate effect on the energy dissipation capacity of ALPORAS® foam was investigated experimentally by using a High Rate Instron Test System, with cross-head speed up to 10 m/s The compressive tests were conducted over strain rates in the range of 1 × 10−3 to 22 × 102 s−1, with each test being at a fairly constant strain rate An energy efficiency method was adopted to obtain the densification strain and plateau stress The effect of strain rate and the foam density was well presented by empirical constitutive models The experimental data were also discussed with reference to the recent results by other researchers but with different range of strain rates An attempt has been made to qualitatively explain the observed decrease of densification strain with strain rate

Compressive behaviour of closed-cell aluminium foams at high strain rates

Porous materials are commonly found in nature and as industrial materials such as wood, carbon, foams, ceramics and bricks. In order to use them effectively, their mechanical properties must be understood in relation to their micro-structures. This paper studies the mechanical properties of a few common porous materials: carbon rods, ceramics, polymeric foams and bricks. The characterisation of pore structures was performed using a Mercury Porosimeter. Detailed information was obtained on the density, porosity, surface area and pore size distribution. A large number of experiments on either bending or compression were conducted in order to obtain their macro-mechanical properties such as Young's modulus, hardness and strength. Based on the experimental observations, theoretical models were employed to predict the macro-properties from the micromechanics viewpoint. By studying the deformation of pores the global behaviour was calculated. Two simple formulae for the elastic modulus, E, were proposed: for low values of porosity, φ, E = E0(1 − 2φ) (1 + 4φ2) where E0 is the elastic modulus when the porosity is zero; for high value of porosity such as for foams E = E0 (1 − φ)2. The theoretical results agreed well with the experimental ones. The study has provided insights into the mechanical properties of porous materials over a wide range of porosity values.

G. Lu

Papers

Mechanical properties of porous materials