Methods of forming a carbon fiber reinforced carbon foam are provided. Such a method may comprise heating a porous body composed of a solid material comprising covalently bound carbon atoms and heteroatoms and having a surface defining pores distributed throughout the solid material, in the presence of an added source of gaseous hydrocarbons. The heating generates free radicals in the porous body from the heteroatoms and induces reactions between the free radicals and the gaseous hydrocarbons to form covalently bound carbon nanofibers extending from the surface of the solid material and a network of entangled carbon microfibers within the pores the porous body, thereby forming a carbon fiber reinforced carbon foam. Carbon fiber reinforced carbon foams and ballistic barriers incorporating the foams are also provided.

A foam concrete with elemental sulfur has constituents that include a cement, a fine filler, an elemental sulfur in powder form, a coarse aggregate, a water, and a foam solution. The foam solution includes a foaming agent and a foaming water. The foam concrete has a compressive strength of at least 26 MPa, a thermal conductivity of less than 0.30 W/mK and a maximum dry weight of 1620 kg/m.sup.3.

A foam concrete has constituents that include a cement, a sand, a coarse aggregate, an oil ash, a water, and a foam solution. The foam concrete has a compressive strength of at least 20 MPa, a thermal conductivity of less than 0.41 W/mK and a maximum weight of 1650 kg/m.sup.3.

One aspect of the heat insulator of the present invention includes a porous sintered body having a porosity of 70 vol % or more and less than 91 vol %, and pores having a pore size of 0.8 μm or more and less than 10 μm occupy 10 vol % or more and 70 vol % or less of the total pore volume, while pores having a pore size of 0.01 μm or more and less than 0.8 μm occupy 5 vol % or more and 30 vol % or less of the total pore volume. The porous sintered body is formed from an MgAl.sub.2O.sub.4 (spinel) raw material and fibers formed of an inorganic material, the heat conductivity of the heat insulator at 1000° C. or more and 1500° C. or less is 0.40 W/(m.Math.K) or less, and the weight ratio of Si relative to Mg in the porous sintered body is 0.15 or less.

A geopolymer foam composition, an article comprising a geopolymer foam composition, methods for making a geopolymer foam composition, and uses of a geopolymer foam composition.

A structural lightweight concrete composition comprising cement, a fine aggregate such as sand, a natural coarse aggregates, such as limestone, scoria or perlite or mixtures thereof, a synthetic coarse aggregate comprising a polymeric material, such as polypropylene beads, an industrial waste byproduct in the form of fine particles, such as silica fume or heavy oil ash, a superplasticizer, such as a polycarboxylate ether and water demonstrating lower thermal conductivity and sufficient compressive strength. Concrete products made therefrom and methods for producing such products are also provided.

Provided is an aerogel blanket and a method for producing the same, wherein a catalyzed sol I sufficiently and uniformly impregnated into a blanket in an impregnation tank, and the catalyzed sol is allowed to stay in the impregnation tank for a specific time to control fluidity while achieving a viscosity at which the catalyzed sol can be easily introduced into the blanket, thereby forming a uniform aerogel in the blanket. As a result, the uniformity of pore structure and thermal insulation performance of an aerogel blanket are improved, the loss of raw materials is reduced through the impregnation process, the occurrence of process problems is reduced, and the generation of dust is reduced.

A method for the construction of a data center, includes (a) providing a fresh concrete composition including a paste that includes a hydraulic binder, a mineral addition and water, the paste being present in a mixture with sand and aggregates, whereby the paste is present in the concrete composition in a volume of <320 L/m.sup.3 and/or the solid volume fraction of said paste is >50 vol.-% and (b) placing the fresh concrete composition so as to build walls, a floor and/or a ceiling of the data center, which are intended to surround the individual components of computer systems, which are housed in the data center.

Techniques of forming a foamed insulation material from gypsum waste are disclosed herein. One example technique includes mechanically comminuting the gypsum waste from an original size into particles of gypsum at a target size smaller than the original size and mixing the particles of the gypsum with a binder to form a mixture of particles and binder. The binder is configured to bind the particles of gypsum upon hydration. The example technique can further include performing air entrainment on the mixture until a foam is formed from the mixture having the particles of gypsum and binder. The foam has water that causes the binder to bind the particles of gypsum. The example technique can then include removing moisture from the mixture with the formed foam to form a foamed insulation material from the particles of gypsum.

A thermal insulation material, a process for producing the thermal insulation material and an application process of the material on surfaces is disclosed. The thermal insulation material contains 30-90 wt % aluminum silicate source and 1-30 wt % inorganic hollow material particles. The aluminum silicate source has fly ash and/or clay based material.