FULL PAPER

DOI: 10.1002/adem.201700082

Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell

Ceramic Foams Using an Experimental-Numerical
Approach**
By Christoph Settgast,* Johannes Solarek, Yvonne Klemm, Martin Abendroth,
Meinhard Kuna and Horst Biermann

Open-cell ceramic foam filters are used for the casting process of molten metal to reduce the amount of
non-metallic inclusions and turbulence of the metal flow. These filters are exposed to high temperatures
and loadings. The present work investigates the creep behavior for an artificial and stochastical filter
structure, based on high temperature tests of carbon-bonded alumina.

1. Introduction Creep and relaxation compression tests at bulk specimens

Within the collaborative research center CRC 920 “Multi-
functional filter for Metal Metal Filtration – A Contribution
towards Zero Defect Materials” at TU Bergakademie Freiberg,
Germany, a new generation of multifunctional filters, made of
carbon-bonded alumina, is investigated. During the casting
process, the foam is not sufficiently accessible to experimental
observations due to the high melt velocities and temperatures,
which is why numerical simulations are needed.
In some applications, e.g., continuous casting, the ceramic
foam filter is subjected to a permanent loading caused by the
molten metal during the metal melt filtration for more then a
couple of minutes. For that reason, it is important to know the
long time behavior of the material at high temperatures.
Therefore, tests are needed on bulk carbon-bonded alumina
specimens at high temperatures to determine the material
behavior. Afterwards numerical simulations are possible
using the determined material description to predict the long
time foam behavior and to optimize the filter structure.
[*] C. Settgast, Dr.-Ing. M. Abendroth,
Prof. Dr.rer.nat.habil. M. Kuna
TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute for Mechanics and Fluid
Dynamics, 09596 Freiberg, Germany
E-mail: Christoph.Settgast@imfd.tu-freiberg.de
J. Solarek, Y. Klemm, Prof. Dr.-Ing. H. Biermann
TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Materials Engineering,
09596 Freiberg, Germany
[**] The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the
German Research Foundation (DFG) within the collaborative
research center SFB 920. In addition, the authors thank
Ms. Petra Kästner for sample preparation and Mr. Tobias
Lienemann for execution of experimental tests.
of carbon-bonded alumina were performed by Solarek et al.[1]
for stresses and temperatures up to 1 500
C. Based on these
investigations, an obvious creep behavior was observed for
temperatures above 1 000
C and a predominantly primary
creep in the tested time range of 30 min. There are many
different models in the literature to describe the creep
deformation behavior.[2–4]
Detailed simulations of geometrical complex foams and the
filtering process would require very large meshes and
computational power. Thus, homogenized effective and
stochastical foam structures of Abendroth et al.[5] are used
to investigate the creep behavior of such foams.
The aim of the present work is to describe high temperature
creep behavior of the carbon-bonded alumina. The material
tests are done for additional creep stresses and a longer testing
time for a more detailed investigation of the material (see
Section 2 for testing procedure). Based on material tests at
1 350
C, the creep behavior is described using a creep material
law (see Section 4.2). Applying the creep material law to the
artificial foam structure (Section 3), its creep behavior is
predicted and investigated based on numerical simulations,
using the finite element method (FEM), for different loadings
of the foam and for two different determining parameters,
which describe strut shape and relative density (Section 4.3).
2. Experimental Section
2.1. Material Preparation
A fine-grained carbon-bonded alumina is used. To prepare
the samples, all solid components given in Table 1 are mixed
with liquid components (glycerol þ water þ dispersing agent
Castament VP95L, BASF, Germany) using a ball mill with
corundum balls for 24 h. Afterwards, the slurry is dried about
24 h at 110
C, milled and again dried for 24 h. The residual

1700082 (1 of 9) wileyonlinelibrary.com © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082
C. Settgast et al./Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell Ceramic Foams. . .

FULL PAPER
Table 1. Composition of the Samples testing machine (Z20, Zwick Roell, Ulm, Germany) with an
integrated inert gas chamber (Maytec, Singen, Germany).
Weight Short time tests (< 30 min) can be performed at temperatures
fraction Material Product Producer up to 1 500
C, longer running tests (90 min) are restricted to a
66 wt% Fine-grained
1
Martoxid MR70, Albemarle,
maximum temperature of 1 350
C.
alumina d50 ¼ 0.8 mm Bergheim, Germany The test set up for these compression tests is shown in
1
20 wt% Bonding Carbores P, Rütgers Chemicals, detail in Figure 1, with specimen (1), Si3N4-pistons (2),
agent d50 ¼ 80 mm Castrop-Rauxel,
Germany
molybdenum susceptors (3), Al2O3-bars for displacement
6 wt% Carbon black Luvomaxx N991, Lehmann & Voss, measurement (4), and copper coil (5). To ensure a more
d50 ¼ 1.1 mm, Hamburg, Germany homogeneous distribution of temperature in the specimen,
99 wt% carbon
8 wt% Graphite AF 96/97, Graphit Kropfmühl,
the molybdenum susceptors (TZM) are aligned above and
d50 ¼ 10 mm, Hauzenberg, below. For these tests, the displacement measurement can be
96.7 wt% carbon Germany carried out closer to the specimen, compared to the system
used in the work of Solarek et al.[1]
The tests are performed at normal pressure in inert argon
atmosphere, in order to prevent the oxidation of carbon.
moisture of the fine and dry powder is below 3 wt%. This Therefore, the chamber with the specimen to be tested, is
powder is uniaxially pressed at 100 MPa into bars (150  25 evacuated to a pressure of 2  101 mbar and filled with argon
 25 mm3) and coked at 1 400
C under reducing atmosphere to 1 000 mbar twice previous testing. Afterwards, the speci-
in a coke bed. Finally, the bars are lathed out to cylinders mens are heated inductively to working temperature of
(Ø25 mm  25 mm). The specimens (specimen (1) in Figure 1) 1 350
C with approx. 20 K s1 using a middle frequency
are compact with a microporosity of 34%. Detailed informa- generator (TRUMPF Hüttinger HF5010, Freiburg, Germany).
tion about material preparation were given by Klemm et al.[6] The temperature is controlled using a pyrometer (Sensor-
therm Metis MS09, Sulzbach, Germany) working at a
2.2. Material Tests wavelength of 0.9 mm. More information about material tests
The bulk material is assumed to be an isotropic elastic, are given in a previous work.[1] After a holding time of 20 min
viscoplastic-material, which allows the determination of for a homogeneous temperature field in the sample, the force
material parameters from a single uniaxial test. is increased with a rate of 250 N s1. In all tests, the loading
Creep and stress relaxation compression tests are per- axis is parallel to the pressing direction of the samples.
formed on a high-temperature 20 kN electro-mechanical Five creep tests are performed for 90 min at different
compressive stresses scr ¼ [2, 5, 10, 15, 20] MPa. The testing
times for these tests are greater than those of Solarek et al.[1]
for a more detailed investigation of the material behavior. No
changes of the specimen diameter are observed during the
tests, which is why a steady stress state is assumed.
For a more detailed investigation of the high-temperature
material behavior up to 10 MPa at 1 350
C, a stress relaxation
test is carried out for 30 min with an initial compressive stress
of s 0re ¼ 10 MPa. The testing time period for the relaxation test
is shorter then for the creep tests due to the fast relaxation of
the material (shown in Section 4.1).

3. Artificial Open-Cell Ceramic Foams

Fig 1. Test set up for compression tests. Specimen (1), Si3N4 -pistons (2), susceptors (3),
Al2O3 -bars for displacement measurement (4) and copper coil (5). Copper coil is sliced
for illustration.
Due to the complexity of foam structures, simulations of
whole filters would require very large meshes and computa-
tional power. For that reason, homogenized models, which are
computationally more efficient, are often used to investigate
structural influences. For the investigations of the foam creep
behavior, the stochastical monodispersed foam structure from
Abendroth et al.[5] is used as a representative volume element
(RVE).
A structure is needed, that is, comparable with the real
ceramic foams manufactured with the Schwartzwalder
replica process,[7] where an open-cell polyurethane (PU)
foam is coated with ceramic slurry, dried, and finally fired.

ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082 © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim http://www.aem-journal.com (2 of 9) 1700082
 C. Settgast et al./Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell Ceramic Foams. . .

During the firing process, the PU pyrolyzes.

FULL PAPER

Thus, the effective foam structure must have

a cavity for realistic investigations. To gener-
ate such a realistic foam structure, the
following procedure is used (more informa-
tion were given by Abendroth et al.[5]):
First, a dense monodisperse sphere pack-
ing is generated with 216 spheres in a cube
with the length lRVE . Second, a Laguerre
tessalation is created based on the monodis-
persed sphere packing. Third, the foam
energy of this Laguerre tessalation is mini-
mized using the Surface Evolver of Brakke.[8]
Fourth, the result of the minimized foam is Fig. 2. Finite element mesh of generated open-cell foam for relative density % ¼ 20%. (a) Influence of shape
factor k, from top left to bottom right: k ¼ ½0:90; 0:95; 1:0; 1:05. With increasing k the strut diameter in the
transformed to the wet foam having a relative middle of the strut decreases and material concentration at strut junctions increases. (b) Generated foam
density of %i ¼ 2% to get the inner pyrolyzed structure in cubic RVE, k ¼ 1:0.
PU structure. Fifth, the center lines of the wet
foam are used to generate the outer foam
surface with a 3D Gaussian filter. The defined standard j
Dui ¼ Duij ¼ lRVE  eij ð4Þ
deviation of the Gaussian filter is based on the average strut
radius is required with the RVE size lRVE  s ij and eij are the
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi homogenized (effective) stresses and strains, which are the
%VRVE volume weighted averages of the local stresses and strains s ij
r¼ ; ð1Þ
pls and eij
Z Z
where VRVE denotes the volume of the RVE, % the relative 1 1
s ij ¼ s ij dV; eij ¼ eij dV ð5Þ
density of the solid part of the RVE and ls the total length of all VRVE VRVE
foam struts. With increasing %, the number of closed cell faces
and can be set at reference nodes (one for each spatial
increases, which also occurs at real ceramic foams. To change j j
direction j) with external tractions ti or displacements Dui :
the strut geometry, a shape factor k is multiplied with the
standard deviation. With smaller k, the shape of the struts j j
are more cylindrical, with an increase of k, more material is at ti Dui
s ij ¼ 2
; eij ¼ : ð6Þ
the strut junctions and the strut diameters decrease in the lRVE lRVE
middle of the struts (more information were given by
Abendroth et al.[5]). During the manufacturing of ceramic More information about the periodic boundary conditions
foams, this can be controlled by the properties of the ceramic and homogenization were given by Storm et al.[9]
coating slurry. An illustration of the influence of k is shown in
Figure 2a for a relative density of % ¼ 20%. At last, a finite
element mesh is generated based on the inner surface of the 4. Results and Discussion
fourth step and the outer surface of the fifth step. The result is 4.1. Bulk Specimen Tests
shown in Figure 2b for % ¼ 20%. The determined creep strains for different applied
The structure is a geometrically periodic cubic RVE. compressive stresses, tested with the procedure described
Periodic boundary conditions for small deformations are in Section 2, are shown in Figure 3a. The creep strains show a
applied. The displacement difference for two points at dominant primary creep behavior, the creep strain rate during
opposite boundaries is the testing time period. For small stresses (< 10 MPa), a
secondary creep stage with a nearly constant creep strain rate
jþ j j
ui  ui ¼ Dui : ð2Þ is observed during these tests. Between s cr ¼ 5 MPa and
s cr ¼ 10 MPa, the creep strains increase significantly. Proba-
The equilibrated tractions tj are opposed bly, this is caused by a change of the creep mechanism for
small loadings. More creep tests are necessary to investigate
j jþ
ti ¼ ti ð3Þ the creep behavior, especially the possible creep mechanism
change, and to reduce the influence of the material scatter.
for corresponding points on opposite boundaries iþ and i. The principal course of the creep curves of s cr ¼ 2 MPa,
To avoid rigid body rotations of the RVE, the symmetry s cr ¼ 10 MPa, and s cr ¼ 20 MPa until 30 min have a reason-
condition able accordance with those previously investigated.[1]

1700082 (3 of 9) http://www.aem-journal.com © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082
C. Settgast et al./Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell Ceramic Foams. . .

FULL PAPER
Fig. 3. Results of compression tests at cylindric bulk specimens of Al2O3-C at 1 350
C. (a) Creep tests for different stresses. (b) Relaxation test with s 0re ¼ 10 MPa.

eq
The result of the relaxation test with an initial stress of with time t, equivalent stress s eq and equivalent strain ecr .
s 0re ¼ 10 MPa is depicted in Figure 3b. At the beginning, the There are two different versions of this formulation in the
stress relaxation rate is very high and after 30 min 80% of the literature[2,4]: The time hardening model
initial stress are relaxed in accordance with previously
s n
reported.[1] e_ eq;time ¼
eq
tm ð10Þ
cr
A
4.2. Bulk Material Law
and the strain hardening model
To describe the bulk material behavior at 1 350
C, it is
assumed that the strain rate e_ r of the bulk material is the  l
e_ eq;strain ¼ bs ceq eeq ð11Þ
summation of the elastic strain rate e_ el
ij and the creep strain rate
cr cr

e_ cr
ij with i; j ¼ 1; 2; 3 with the stress factors A and b, the stress exponents n and c, the
time exponent m, and the strain exponent l. The material
e_ ij ¼ e_ el
ij þ e_ ij :
cr
ð7Þ parameters of the strain hardening model are functions of the
time hardening model, see Naumenko et al.[4]:
The stresses s ij and elastic strains are related according to
Hooke’s law   1
ðm þ 1Þm m þ 1
b¼
s ij ¼ Cijkl eel An
kl ; ð8Þ
n ð12Þ
c¼
with the stiffness tensor Cijkl. For an isotropic material, Cijkl mþ1
m
contains only two independent components, which can be l¼ :
mþ1
expressed using the elastic modulus E and the Poisson’s ratio
n. The Poisson’s ratio of the specimens is determined as n ¼
For constant stresses, the time hardening and the strain
0:14 at room temperature, based on simultaneous measure-
hardening model deliver the same result
ment of longitudinal and lateral strains of a specimen during
elastic loading with strain gauges, and is assumed constant 1 s eq n mþ1
within the considered temperature range. E is determined eeq
cr ¼ t ð13Þ
mþ1 A
using a quasi-static compression test with a loading rate of
0.5 MPa s1 for eleven different specimens at 1 350
C. The see Odqvist et al.[2] For an arbitrary stress state, the von Mises
elastic moduli of the tested specimens are identified by means stress s vM is used for isotropic materials in these two models
of numerical simulations with the commercial FEM code for the equivalent stress[2,4]
ABAQUS.[10] Within this simulations, the friction coefficient
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
between specimen and molybdenum susceptors is assumed 3
as m ¼ 0:3. The resultant mean value is E ¼ 1 630 MPa. s eq ¼ s vM ¼ sij sij ; ð14Þ
2
Based on the testing results of Figure 3a, a power law
formulation[2,4] for e_ cr for the dominating primary creep is where sij denotes the deviatoric stress tensor
deduced as
1
  sij ¼ s ij  s kk dij : ð15Þ
e_ eq
cr ¼ f t; s eq ; ecr ;
eq
ð9Þ 3

ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082 © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim http://www.aem-journal.com (4 of 9) 1700082
 C. Settgast et al./Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell Ceramic Foams. . .
FULL PAPER
Fig. 4. Results for fitted s cr ¼ ½2; 5; 10; 15; 20 MPa with creep models of Equations 10
and 11, A ¼ 3:60  104 MPasðmþ1Þ=n , n ¼ 1:06 and m ¼ 0:56.
Thus, the equivalent creep strain rate is formulated as
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2 cr cr
e_ eq ¼ e_ e_ : ð16Þ
cr
3 ij ij
A change of the creep mechanism between s cr ¼ 5 MPa and
s cr ¼ 10 MPa is not taken into account, since there are not
enough experimental data for a sufficiently well-founded
statement.
The material parameters are identified by numerical
optimiziation with a minimization of the least square errors
between experimental and numerical creep strains based on
numerical simulations with the commercial FEM code
ABAQUS for the tested s cr . The calculated creep strains are
shown in Figure 4 with A ¼ 3:60  104 MPasðmþ1Þ=n , n ¼ 1:06,
and m ¼ 0:56.
The fitted creep power laws of Equations 10 and 11 give a
good estimation for s cr ¼ 10 MPa and s cr ¼ 20 MPa. The creep
strains of s cr ¼ 2 MPa and s cr ¼ 15 MPa are slightly under-
estimated for the whole testing time range and the creep strain
of s cr ¼ 5 MPa is underestimated comparatively strong.
Without the consideration of the experimental results of
s cr ¼ 5 MPa, the fitted creep power laws give a reasonable
description. The determined stress exponent for these five
tests is n ¼ 1:06. That means, that the influence of the
compressive stress is nearly linear to the creep strain rate.
Both creep power laws e_ timecr and e_ strain
cr are used for the
numerical calculation of a stress relaxation test with the FEM
code ABAQUS, using the same material parameters as for the
simulations of the creep tests. The resulting stress relaxation
curves for both creep power laws are compared with the
material testing stress relaxation curve in Figure 5.
Both used creep laws underestimate the stress relaxation in
the first few minutes. However, e_ time
cr has a better match with
the experimental results over the remaining time range.
For this creep, model approximately 75% of the stress relaxed
after 30 min. e_ strain
cr underestimates the stress relaxation more
1700082 (5 of 9) http://www.aem-journal.com © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Fig. 5. Relaxation test result compared with ABAQUS calculated stress relaxation
(using fitted material parameters for s cr ¼ ½2; 5; 10; 15; 20 MPa) for both creep models
of Equations 10 and 11.
than e_ time
cr during the whole testing time with a stress
relaxation of nearly 65% after 30 min.
Based on the better results for the relaxation test, the time
hardening model is recommended for the description of the
tested carbon-bonded alumina Al2O3-C.
4.3. Creep Simulation of Artifical Foams
The validated creep power law of Section 4.2, the time
hardening model e_ timecr , is used for the bulk material of the
foam struts to predict the creep behavior of the artificial foam
of Section 3 for an effective uniaxial compressive loading.
The commercial FEM code ABAQUS is used for the
numerical simulations over the same period of time as the
experimental tests. The small deformation theory is used for
all simulations.
The foam structure is loaded by an effective uniaxial stress
s 11 in a linear elastic step. Afterwards, the loading remains
constant for a time t ¼ 90 min to investigate the effective creep
behavior. The effective stresses are chosen, such that uniaxial
effective creep strains ecr
11 < 1%.
The local equivalent stresses at the outside of the foam
struts are shown in Figure 6 for different moments of
simulation using the calculated material parameters of Section
4.2 with an effective loading of s 11 ¼ 0:1 MPa. The deforma-
tion mode of the struts depend on their orientation with
respect to the effective loading direction. For uniaxial effective
loading, the highest stresses are found at struts whose axes
are inclined by 45
to the effective loading direction, because
the dominant deformation mode is bending. Struts with axes
parallel to the effective loading direction exhibit medium local
equivalent stresses, because they are mainly subjected to
compression. The lowest local stresses are observed for struts,
which are orientated perpendicular to the effective loading
direction. The maximal local equivalent stress at the outside of
the struts is significantly higher (in this example with a factor
of nearly 70) than the effective stress of the porous foam
structure, see legend in Figure 6. During creep deformation
ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082
C. Settgast et al./Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell Ceramic Foams. . .

FULL PAPER
Fig. 6. Results of finite element simulation for the creep behavior of an artificial foam for an effective uniaxial loading of s 11 ¼ 0:1 MPa. The material parameters are given in Section
4.2. The geometrical parameters are k ¼ 1:00 and % ¼ 20%. The displacements are magnified by a factor 20 for better illustration. (a) Whole foam after creep simulation of 90 min.
(b) Single cell without loading. (c) Equivalent stress of a single cell at the end of the linear-elastic loading (beginning of creep). (d) Equivalent stress of a single cell after creep
simulation of 90 min.

(Figure 6d), the viscous material behavior prevents a strong As a consequence, the effective strain rate and the effective
increase of stress concentrations. Thus, the equivalent stresses strain increases as well with
remain nearly constant.
e_ cr / s ncr : ð20Þ
4.3.1. Influence of Effective Compressive Loading
To investigate the influence of the effective loading, That is, in accordance with the analytical investigations
numerical simulations are done for three different effective about the creep behavior of honeycomb structures by
uniaxial compressive stresses Andrews et al.[12] Analogously, the temporary development
of ecr is the same as for the bulk material, that means for small
s cr
11 ¼ ½0:05; 0:10; 0:15 MPa: ð17Þ deformations holds

The resulting effective creep strain curves are shown in  ¼m:

m ð21Þ
Figure 7a. With increasing effective loading, the effective
creep strain increases. For small deformations, the increase Consequently the effective creep behavior of the RVE can
happens with the same stress exponent n  as that of the bulk be described with the same power law
material n:  n
s
e_ cr ¼  t
m
ð22Þ
 ¼ n:
n ð18Þ A

An increase of the effective stress increases the local as for the bulk material, where only the stress factor A 
stresses. For small deformations, it is a linear mapping, see depends on the structure.
Settgast et al.[11] With increased local stresses, local creep The creep strain of s cr
11 ¼ 0:10 MPa is used to calculate the
strain rates are increased, see Equation 10, with  of Equation 13 using the stress and
effective stress factor A
time exponent of the bulk material. The result is
e_ cr / s ncr : ð19Þ  ¼ 1 430 MPa sðmþ1Þ=n . The creep strains of s cr ¼ 0:05MPa
A 11

ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082 © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim http://www.aem-journal.com (6 of 9) 1700082
 C. Settgast et al./Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell Ceramic Foams. . .
FULL PAPER

11 on the effective creep strain 

Fig. 7. Influence of effective compressive stress s cr ecr
11 . (a) Results of numerical simulations. (b) Comparison of results of numerical simulations and
functional description of Equation 22. A is calculated for s cr ¼ 0:10 MPa.
11

and s cr 11 ¼ 0:15 MPa are described with the functional
description of Equation 22 and the calculated parameter A.  is nearly 0.4%. The creep strain increases with an increasing
The resultant creep strains are shown in Figure 7b with the
results of the numerical simulations.
To determine the influences of the strut shape factor k and
the relative density % on the elastic and creep behaviour of
the artificial foams, numerical simulations are done for
different k and % for a constant compressive loading of
s cr
11 ¼ 0:10 MPa.
4.3.2. Influence of Strut Shape Factor
The strut shape factor k influences the material distribution
along the strut (see Figure 2a in Section 3). The influence of
this parameter is investigated for
k ¼ ½0:90; 0:95; 1:00; 1:05; 1:10
using numerical simulations. k ¼ 1:00 is the standard
configuration for the modelled artificial open-cell foam
structure. The calculated creep strain ecr
11 for a loading of
s cr
11 ¼ 0:10 MPa is shown in Figure 8a.
For all shape factors k, the effective creep strain after 90 min
shape factor k. If k is increased, the struts cross sectional area in
the middle of the struts decreases and the local stresses
increase, resulting in higher local and effective creep strains.
The effective stress factors A  are calculated for all five k
based on the effective creep strains. With increase of k, the
value of A decreases, based on the increased eeq cr . Additionally,
the elastic modulus is calculated from the linear elastic
loading step at the beginning of the simulation. With smaller
strut cross section, areas at the middle of the struts and more
material at the strut junctions the effective stiffness of the foam
structure E decreases. The ratios for E=E
 and A=A are shown in
dependence of the strut shape factor k in Figure 8b. Both ratios
show nearly the same dependence. For both ratios, a quadratic
ð23Þ function shows a good match in the used intervall of
k ¼ ½0:90; 1:10, see Figure 8b.
4.3.3. Influence of Relative Density
With an increasing relative density % of the foam, the strut
radius r increases and additionally the number of closed cell

11 ¼ 0:10 MPa. (a) Effective creep strain 

Fig. 8. Influence of strut shape factor k to creep behavior of foam structure based on numerical simulations for s cr ecr
11 ðtÞ for 90 min. (b) Ratio of

effective to bulk elastic modulus E=EðkÞ 
and creep power law stress factor A=AðkÞ.

1700082 (7 of 9) http://www.aem-journal.com © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082
C. Settgast et al./Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell Ceramic Foams. . .

FULL PAPER
11 ¼ 0:10 MPa. (a) Effective creep strain 
Fig. 9. Influence of relative density % to creep behavior of foam structure based on numerical simulations s cr ecr
11 ðtÞ for 90 min. (b) Ratio of
 ð%Þ and creep power law stress factor A=A
effective to bulk elastic modulus E=E  ð%Þ.

faces increases. Based on this fact, the stiffness of the foam Consequently the ratio of the stress factors depends on %
rises and the local stresses decrease because a growing with
amount of material is available to reduce the local stresses. For
a more in-depth investigation of this correlation, numerical 
A
ð%Þ ¼ 1:01  102 %1:99 : ð29Þ
simulations are done for A

% ¼ ½20; 30; 40; 50 % ð24Þ

for an effective loading of s cr
¼ 0:10 MPa. The results are
11 5. Conclusions
shown in Figure 9a. An increase of % strongly decreases the
The uniaxial effective creep behavior of open-cell ceramic
effective creep strains ecr . Due to the decreases of the effective
 is increased as foams made of carbon-bonded alumina is investigated using
creep strains ecr , the effective stress factor A
 as shown in Figure 9b. a combined experimental-numerical approach. High tem-
well as the effective stiffness E,
perature uniaxial compression creep and relaxation tests are
The ratios of the effective to the local mechanical
  performed to derive a material description for bulk carbon-
parameters E=E and A=A can be fitted using Equations 25
bonded alumina. A creep power law is used to describe the
and 29, which agree with the investigations of Andrews
creep behavior and compared with the relaxation behavior of
et al.[12] derived for honeycomb structures.
this material. This material model is applied to predict the
 creep behavior of an artificial monodispersed foam structure,
E
ð%Þ ¼ 9:55  103 %2 : ð25Þ whereby the influence of two structural parameters is
E
studied.
For the ratio of the effective to the bulk material creep strain A predominantly primary creep is observed for the tested
rate an influence of % with bulk material with a stress exponent of the primary creep
 a power law of nearly n  1. Consequently, the influence of the
e_ cr 1 stress is nearly linear to the creep strain rate and creep strain
/ ð26Þ
e_ cr % of the bulk material. Additional tests are needed to
is fitted. The exponent a ¼ 2:10 determined by FEM investigate the creep behavior at loads less than s ¼
investigation of the creep strain rates agrees with the exponent 10 MPa and for a better consideration of the scatter of
published by Andrews et al.[12] with material properties.
The effective creep behavior for small deformations of an
3n þ 1 representative volume element can be described with the
aAndrews ¼ ¼ 2:09: ð27Þ
2 same creep power law as for the bulk material, where only the
stress factor A depends on the structure. The mechanical
With Equation 10, 18, and 21, the ratio of effective to local
properties depend on the shape of the struts. These results are
stress factor is proportional to the ratio of the creep strains
in good accordance with the study of Andrews et al.[12] For a
and % with
higher foam creep resistance and foam stiffness the struts
sffiffiffiffiffiffi

A n e_ cr a
have to be cylindrical shape and as thick as possible.
/ /%n : ð12Þ Further investigations of the creep behavior of real open-
A _
e cr
cell ceramic foams are planned to compare and validate the
numerically predicted creep behavior.

ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082 © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim http://www.aem-journal.com (8 of 9) 1700082
 C. Settgast et al./Prediction of High Temperature Behavior of Open-Cell Ceramic Foams. . .
FULL PAPER
Article first published online: April 3, 2017
Manuscript Revised: March 3, 2017
Manuscript Received: February 2, 2017
[1] J. Solarek, C. Bachmann, Y. Klemm, C. G. Aneziris,
H. Biermann, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 2016, 99, 1390. https://
doi.org/10.1111/jace.14070.
[2] F. K. Odqvist, J. Hult, Kriechfestigkeit Metallischer
Werkstoffe, Springer, Berlin 1962.
[3] D. Munz, T. Fett, Ceramics: Mechanical Properties, Failure
Behaviour, Materials Selection, Vol. 36, Springer Science &
Business Media, Berlin 2001. https://doi.org/10.1007/
978-3-642-58407-7.
[4] K. Naumenko, H. Altenbach, Modeling of Creep for
Structural Analysis, Springer Science & Business Media,
Berlin 2007.
1700082 (9 of 9) http://www.aem-journal.com © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
[5] M. Abendroth, E. Werzner, C. Settgast, M. Kuna, S. Ray,
Adv. Eng. Mater. 2017.
[6] Y. Klemm, H. Biermann, C. Aneziris, Adv. Eng. Mater. 2013,
15, 1224. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201300159.
[7] K. Schwartzwalder, H. Somers, A. Somers, US Patent
3,090,094, 1963.
[8] K. A. Brakke, Exp. Math. 1992, 1, 141. https://doi.org/
10.1080/10586458.1992.10504253.
[9] J. Storm, M. Abendroth, D. Zhang, M. Kuna, Adv. Eng. Mater.
2013, 15, 1292. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem. 201300141.
[10] D. Systemes, Abaqus 6.12 Theory Manual, Dassault
Systemes Simulia Corp., Providence, Rhode Island 2012.
[11] C. Settgast, M. Abendroth, M. Kuna, Arch. Appl. Mech.
2016, 86, 335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00419-015-
1107-3.
[12] E. Andrews, L. Gibson, M. Ashby, Acta Mater. 1999,
47, 2853.
ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2017, 19, No. 9, 1700082