A new technique for obtaining three-dimensional structures in pitch-based carbon foams

The three-dimensional (3D) structure of carbon foams is difficult to infer from two-dimensional characterizations. In particular, regular models cannot capture the interaction between the pores in real materials with morphological dispersity. In this paper, the actual 3D structure of a pitch-based carbon foam is captured and used to build solid models for finite element analyses of thermal and mechanical properties.