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Syntactic foams are a kind of composite; consist of polymeric matrix and hollow micro-balloons. They have high strength to weight ratio if it compare to the neat matrix material. In this paper epoxy resin as matrix and ceramic micro-balloons are used and 36 kinds of syntactic foam were fabricated to investigate the effect of preparation factors such as: mixing speed, mixing time, mixing sequence and extracting bubbles by a vacuum oven on the mechanical properties. Also, two undesirable events like micro-balloon flotation in matrix and porosity are investigated as they affect the foam`s strength. The results show that the speed and sequence of mixing are not effective seriously. However the time needed for mixing would be changed for different volume percent of micro-balloons. It should be noted that as flotation and porosity increases the compression strength decreases. Using the vacuum pressure before molding may decrease the matrix porosity for above 40% micro-balloon volume fraction syntactic foams. Converse to previous, using the vacuum pressure for below 40% micro-balloon volume fraction syntactic foams would increase the floatation and decreases the compression strength.

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Epoxy / ceramic micro balloon syntactic foams are used in marine and automobile industries because of their high specific strength and capability of absorbing energy. In this paper, the neat epoxy and 9 series of syntactic foams with 3 kinds of ceramic micro balloon with different diameters and crush strength in different volume fractions (20%, 40% & 60%) were fabricated. Effect of varying these parameters on the mechanical properties of syntactic foams is investigated. Besides of all, the effect of different loading rate is investigated, too. All of the samples were tested in 10-1, 10-2 and 10-3 strain rates. The results indicate that with increasing the strain rate from quasi-static to moderate rates, the strength of foams became more. Also the results show that the syntactic foam with bigger micro balloon was weak in compression. In syntactic foams of low volume fraction the size effects is more. On the other hand, with increasing the volume fraction, the crush strength of micro balloon is become effective. Plateau stress and absorbed energy results show these facts obviously. With increasing the strain rate, the strength is increased considerably.