Use of Fly Ash as Bonding Material on Low Thermal Expansion Porous Materials

Abstract

In this work it was determined the effect of fly ash (FA) as bonding material during the fabrication of low thermal expansion porous materials. SiC, fly ash, Vitrified Bonding Material (VBM), and LiAlSiO4 powders were used as raw materials. Porous materials were sintered at 850°C and 950°C after manual milling and mechanical milling in a planetary ball milling at 800 RPM. SEM micrographs showed the presence of porous materials, and it was observed that fly ash particles did not melt at 850°C. However if sintering temperature increases at 950°C, FA starts to melt and it is forming bridges between SiC particles. Thermal expansion values were around 3.0x10-6 K-1. According to these results, it seems that it is possible to have a favorable synergy between FA and VBM to fabricate SiC porous materials with low thermal expansion values.