Glass Microspheres Thermo-Deformation Sintering Processes in the Technologies of Obtaining Materials for Underwater Technical Equipment

In this work, the important scientific and technical problem of creating multifunctional composite materials for shipbuilding and ocean engineering was solved. The work aimed to study the thermal deformation processes of sintering glass microspheres to obtain lightweight glass composites with a cellular structure that provides positive buoyancy and sound insulation properties. For this purpose, glass microspheres of Na₂O‒SiO₂ and Na2O‒B₂O₃‒SiO₂ composition with a dispersion of 10 to 60 μm were used as raw materials. They were sintered to form a closed, porous structure. The theoretical substantiation of technological parameters is based on the concepts of solid state and glassy state chemistry and physicochemical concepts of glass softening processes. The process of hot-pressing glass microspheres without plasticisers and additives was investigated. The author’s own laboratory equipment was used for the experiments. The sintering intensity was determined from the results of shrinkage processes; the kinetic shrinkage curves were constructed in semilogarithmic coordinates. The glass composite samples were examined by optical and electron microscopy. As a criterion, the storage of spherical microspheres under the influence of simultaneous heating to 700 °C with the application of pressure in the range of 0,5 to 1,5 MPa was chosen. It was established that the formation of a predominantly closed-porous structure of glass composites with a density of 350...600 kg/m³ occurs by the mechanisms of viscous glass phase flow through liquefaction processes in the walls of microspheres. At the same time, shrinkage processes in the linear direction reach up to 50%.

The acoustic properties were investigated by measuring the differences in sound pressure levels in octave frequency bands using a Kundt pipe. The water absorption of the glass composite samples was determined at hydrostatic pressures up to 20 MPa. The research results were compared with the characteristics of analogue composites, such as syntactic foams and foam glass. The developed materials can be used in the design and manufacture of technical equipment for research and maintenance of underwater infrastructure. The prospects for further research are related to the feasibility study and marketing research on implementing the developed glass composites.