| Abstract Scope |
Engineering materials with controlled internal porosity are of high current interest as they can exhibit extraordinary properties and functionalities in applications such as biomedical implants, load-bearing lightweight structures, efficient thermal devices, and high-capacity batteries. Freeze casting (FC) is a process of making porous structures, where the porosity is created during solidification of liquid in a well-dispersed slurry. In this research, we systematically study focused on the manufacturing science of porous materials via FC in order to identify the correlations between inputs and the porosity-determining factors. Inputs such as solid-loading, particle-size, cooling-temperature, and distance from the cooling surface are varied for a silica-camphene system in a 2-level, 2-repetition full-factorial experimental design to identify pore sizes/feret diameters/orientations/distributions. Also, by varying thermal boundary-conditions, guided by FEA, the pore microstructures within the part geometry are steered to tune towards desired properties. This research will lead to realization of porous structures with controllable pore sizes/shapes/orientation/distribution. |