Effects of designed tubular porosity on compressive strengths of honeycomb ceramics

Three-dimensional honeycomb porous ceramics were fabricated using the fused deposition process. The structures were designed to have a controlled interconnected porosity. Elastic interactions between pores of honeycomb ceramic materials were then evaluated for different pore parameters using the finite element modeling (FEM) approach. The FEM results were compared experimentally with the compressive failure strengths of the honeycomb ceramics. The effect of relevant pore parameters on the compressive strength was studied. An analytical fracture mechanics based approach is presented for comparison with the FEM to reflect on the relative importance of pore parameters for different volume fractions of porosity. A detailed insight is also provided into the interrelation between various porosity parameters, mechanical behavior and design of these structures. (C) 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.