Snap-through buckling of fly ash cenosphere/epoxy syntactic foams under thermal environment.

Experimental investigation on deflection behaviour of fly ash cenosphere/epoxy syntactic foam at room temperature and under thermal environment (three different heating conditions) is investigated. Influence of fly ash cenosphere volume fraction and nature of temperature variation on deflection behaviour of syntactic foam beam is discussed elaborately. Results reveal that the syntactic foam beam experience snap-through buckling under thermal environment and is reflected by two bifurcation points in temperature-deflection plot. It is observed that the time duration for which the foam beam stays in the first buckled position increases with increase in cenosphere content. Thermal environment induces compressive stresses in the samples causing such snap-through buckling. However, such phenomenon is not observed when mechanical compressive loads are applied under room temperature conditions. Temperature variation across the beam strongly influences snap-through buckling in syntactic foams in addition to volume fraction of filler content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]