Modelling Mineral Foam Morphology Dynamics for Stability and Insulation Properties

Mineralized foam is an upcoming cementitious material that can be used as a sustainable building material. In view of recycling potential mineral foam has a cementitious microstructure that makes it a “clean” recyclable material. Designing mineral foam is a technology that demands control of the foam structure and the foam stability. From its basic state, mineral foam has an instable morphology that is continuously changing as long as the foam bubbles didn’t got frozen by setting/hardening of cementitious paste. This principle is making the material sensitive for its bubble and pore structure. In this paper, a schematic model is presented with which the bubble morphology and its associated foam stability can be simulated. The foam morphology dynamics was described by merging of different model foam structures having different characteristic bubble sizes, mixed in various volumetric ratios. A linear relationship was found between the degree of merging of different foam structures and the maximum bubble diameter in the foam system. The model turned out to have a great potential in making mineral foam predictable and designable.