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Home » Technologies & Materials » Kiln Furniture, Refractories » Pin Indentation: A Method for the Local Mechanical Characterisation of Highly Porous Ceramic Materials

Pin Indentation: A Method for the Local Mechanical Characterisation of Highly Porous Ceramic Materials

This study highlights the benefits of testing brittle, highly porous materials locally in addition to the well-established testing methods such as uniaxial compression.

Small scale variations in porosity, pore size, shape and orientation are common in brittle, ceramic foams and they have a strong influence on their mechanical properties. Hence, local testing will enhance the understanding of the material and might help to identify possible weaknesses. A method from testing metallic foams is adapted for this purpose: A rigid pin, covering at least 40 pores, is driven with constant speed into the material and the force needed is recorded. The indentation strength terminating the linear elastic increase gives information on the local strength, whereas deep pin indentations penetrating several millimetres into the structure are a meaning-ful measure for energy dissipation of brittle foam materials for i.e. protective purposes in extreme loading situations. This method is termed “pin indentation” and verified on two structurally different ceramic foams. The authors found the pin indentation strength very sensitive to small variations in porosity and pore orientation as well as shape. The two ceramic foams in this study showed in deep pin indentation a constant, and comparably smooth plateau. Therefore, their energy absorption or dissipation capacity can be well characterised.


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