Uniaxial compression and creep behavior of a porous state change material

A reconfigurable tooling system (RTS) has been developed for use in manufacturing composite parts and molding liquid polymers. The RTS utilizes a state-change material that may also be useful as a water-soluble tooling material. The state-change material transitions from a liquid state to a solid state and then back to a liquid state. The material in its liquid state consists of glass microspheres in a solution of water-based binder and water. Through the application of heat and vacuum, the material can be hardened. When the material is in its solid state, the glass microspheres are "glued" together by small amounts of binder remaining in capillarity. Previous studies have been conducted to determine certain mechanical properties of the material in its hardened state. The focus of this study is to characterize variations of the state-change material in uniaxial compression at both ambient and elevated temperatures. Additionally, the room temperature uniaxial compression data is applied to a uniaxial compression creep study. The results show that material variation and test temperature significantly affect the compression and creep properties.