Experimental investigation on high temperature anisotropic compression properties of ceramic-fiber-reinforced SiO2 aerogel

Compression tests were conducted on a ceramic-fiber-reinforced SiO2 aerogel at high temperature. Anisotropic mechanical property was found. In-plane Young's modulus is more than 10 times higher than that of out-of-plane, but fracture strain is much lower by a factor of 100. Out-of-plane Young's modulus decreases with increasing temperature, but the in-plane modulus and fracture stress increase with temperature. The out-of-plane property does not change with loading rates. Viscous flow at high temperature is found to cause in-plane shrinkage, and both in-plane and out-of-plane properties change. Compression induced densification of aerogel matrix was also found by Scanning Electron Microscope analysis.