A cement based syntactic foam

In this study, a cement based syntactic foam core was proposed and experimentally investigated for composite sandwich structures. This was a multi-phase composite material with microballoon dispersed in a rubber latex toughened cement paste matrix. A trace amount of microfiber was also incorporated to increase the number of mechanisms for energy absorption and a small amount of nanoclay was added to improve the crystal structure of the hydrates. Three groups of cement based syntactic foams with varying cement content were investigated. A fourth group of specimens containing pure cement paste were also prepared as control. Each group contained 24 beam specimens. The total number of beam specimens was 96. The dimension of each beam was 30.5 cm × 5.1 cm × 1.5 cm. Twelve foam specimens from each group were wrapped with plain woven 7715 style glass fabric reinforced epoxy to prepare sandwich beams. Twelve cubic foam specimens, three from each group, with a side length of 5.1 cm, were also prepared. Three types of testing, low velocity impact test and four-point bending test on the beam specimens and compression test on the cubic specimens, were conducted to evaluate the impact energy dissipation, stress–strain behavior, and residual strength. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was also used to examine the energy dissipation mechanisms in the micro-length scale. It was found that the cement based syntactic foam has a higher capacity for dissipating impact energy with an insignificant reduction in strength as compared to the control cement paste core. When compared to a polymer based foam core having similar compositions, it was found that the cement based foam has a comparable energy dissipation capacity. The developed cement based syntactic foam would be a viable alternative for core materials in impact-tolerant composite sandwich structures.