Combustion synthesis, or self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS), is currently being used to produce a wide range of advanced porous materials. These materials include ceramic, intermetallic and metal-matrix composites for applications ranging from structural to oxidation- and wear-resistant materials; e.g., TiC-SiC, TiC-Cr3C2, MoSi2-SiC, NiAl-TiB2, engineered porous composites for biomedical uses; e-g-, B4C-AI203, Ti-TiB, NI-TL Ca3(PO4)2, and glass-ceramic composites; e.g., TiB2-B203-Al203MgO, TiB2-CaO-AI203-SiO2-BaO. Based on recent experiments on combustion synthesis of such materials in the NASA parabolic flight (KC-135) aircraft, it has been shown that gravity plays an important role in controlling the structure and properties of the materials. Using Space-DRUMSTm, a containerless processing facility employing dynamic acoustic sample positioning aboard the International Space Station, long-term studies of a much wider range of materials and conditions will be possible. Space-DRUMSTM is being developed by Guigne Technologies, Ltd., in partnership with Astrium Space-Infrastructure and Teledyne-Brown. In this paper, an overview of the CCACS research on combustion synthesis of porous ceramics and experiments planned for ISS in Space,-DRUMSTM will be presented, along with the most recent results of the ground-based studies.
Schowengerdt, F.D., Moore, J.J., Ayers, R.A., Zhang, X., Castillo, M., Yi, H.C., Guigne, J.Y, Combustion Synthesis of Porous Ceramics on Space-Drums, Conference and Exhibit on ISS Utilization, AIAA, Reston, VA, AIAA-2001-5111, October 15, 2001.