There is a lot of research going on in this area. I believe the German
Aerospace Establishment (DLR) in Cologne, Germany is doing research in
this area.
Maybe they can advise you.
MM
About 15 years ago we did some strength testing on shuttle tiles. If my
memory is correct they were silica foams, with extremely low density.
There were two grades '9' and '22' and both were extremely weak. The
developer was Lockheed.
I bleieve that research on foams is (was?) being carried out by Michael
Ashby and his students at Cambridge. Some papers were published in
Metallurgical Transactions about ten years ago.
I'm afraid that I have nothing new since we never got funds to follow up
our research.
--
Al Rosenfield
1650 Ridgway Pl., Columbus OH 43212 USA
phone: 614/486-8892; fax: 614/481-8038
e-mail <aro...@freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Maurice Ward's Starlite polymer will do a similar job without the
hassles of ceramics, but it's not commercially available yet. Maurice
visited us this week and we did the trick with the propane torch (1200
C, way beyond Shuttle tile temperatures). Get Starlite glowing
yellow-hot, take away the torch, and within a few seconds you can touch
the surface. Really works, too. Long-term durability in a given
application would require some developmental testing.
- Steve Richardson