This article presents an account of experiments used to produce aluminium alloy foams by the melt route process using titanium hydride as a foaming agent. Powdered titanium hydride with content of 0.4–1.4% (mass fraction) was added to the molten pure aluminium and the foaming condition was controlled at 690°C (1274°F). In the process, homogeneous aluminium foams were produced with a calcium amount of 1.0–3.0% (mass fraction). The mechanical properties of the aluminium foams with diverse relative density were tested. The result indicates that the foaming agent is suitable for making small aperture aluminium foams with an average pore diameter of 1.2 mm.
BanhartJ.: ‘Manufacture, characterisation and application of cellular metals and metal foams’, Prog. Mater. Sci., 2001, 46, (6), 559–632. doi: 10.1016/S0079-6425(00)00002-5
2.
MiyoshiT., ItohM., AkiyamaS. and KitaharaA.: ‘ALPORAS aluminium foam: production process, properties, and application’, Adv. Eng. Mater., 2000, 2, 179–183. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1527-2648(200004)2:4<179::AID-ADEM179>3.0.CO;2-G
3.
RabieiA. and O'NeillT. A.: ‘A study on processing of a composite metal foam via casting’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2005, 404, 159–164. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2005.05.089
4.
YangaC. and NakaeH.: ‘The effects of viscosity and cooling conditions on the foamability of aluminum alloy’, J. Mater. Process. Technol., 2003, 141, 202–206. doi: 10.1016/S0924-0136(02)01048-8
LanfordJ. and DannemannK. A.: ‘Strain rate effects in porous materials’, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc., 1998, 521, 103–108. doi: 10.1557/PROC-521-103
7.
DeshpandeV. S. and FleckN. A.: ‘High strain rate compressive behavior of aluminum alloy foams’, Int. J. Impact Eng., 2000, 24, 277–298. doi: 10.1016/S0734-743X(99)00153-0
8.
SimancikF., RajnerW. and LaagR.: ‘Alulight-aluminum foam for lightweight construction’, SAE Tech. Paper, 2000, 1, 0337.
9.
Zhen-lunS., Jin-songZ., Li-qunM. and De-pingH.: ‘Evolution of aluminum foams structure in foaming process’, Mater. Sci. Eng., A, 2001, 298, (1), 137–143.
10.
MukaiT., MiyoshiT., NakanoS., SomekawaH. and HigashiK.: ‘Compressive response of a closed-cell aluminum foam at high strain rate’, Scr. Mater., 2006, 54, (4), 533–537. doi: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2005.10.062
11.
PaulA. and RamamurtyU.: ‘Strain rate sensitivity of closed-cell aluminum foam’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2000, 281, (1–2), 1–7. doi: 10.1016/S0921-5093(99)00750-9
12.
MontaniniR.: ‘Measurement of strain rate sensitivity of aluminium foams for energy dissipation’, Int. J. Mech. Sci., 2005, 47, (1), 26–42. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2004.12.007
13.
HidetakaK., ToshijiM., NiehG. T., TatsuhikoA. and KenjiH.: ‘Effect of cell size on the dynamic compressive properties of open-celled aluminum foams’, Mater. Trans., 2010, 43, (10), 2548–2553.
14.
Vendra LakshmiJ. and RabieiA.: ‘A study on aluminum-steel composite metal foam processed by casting’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2007, 65, (4), 59–67. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2007.04.037
15.
MondalD. P., DasS., SureshK. S. and RamakrishnanN.: ‘Compressive deformation behaviour of coarse SiC particle reinforced composite: effect of age-hardening and SiC content’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2007, 460–461, 550–560. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2007.03.001
16.
MondalD. P., GaneshN. V., MuneshwarV. S., DasS. and RamakrishnanN.: ‘Effect of SiC concentration and strain rate on the compressive deformation behaviour of 2014Al-SiCp composite’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2006, 433, (1–2), 18–31. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2006.07.007
17.
HunterT. N., PughR. J., FranksG. V. and JamesonG. J.: ‘The role of particles in stabilising foams and emulsions’, Adv. Colloid Interface Sci., 2008, 137, (2), 57–81. doi: 10.1016/j.cis.2007.07.007
18.
ShunmugasamyaV. C., GuptaN., NguyenN. Q. and CoelhoP. G.: ‘Strain rate dependence of damage evolution in syntactic foams’, Mater. Sci. Eng., A, 2010, 527, 6166–6177. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2010.06.021
19.
FiedlerT., BelovaI. V. and MurchG. E.: ‘µ-CT-based finite element analysis on imperfections in open-celled metal foam: mechanical properties’, Scr. Mater., 2012, 67, 455–458. doi: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2012.06.002
20.
MondalD. P., RamakrishnanN., SureshK. S. and DasS.: ‘On the moduli of closed-cell aluminum foam’, Scr. Mater., 2007, 57, (10), 929–932. doi: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2007.07.021
21.
RajputV., MondalD. P., DasS., RamakrishnanN. and JhaA. K.: ‘Effect of SiCp addition on age-hardening of aluminium composite and closed cell aluminium composite foam’, J. Mater. Sci., 2007, 42, (17), 7408–7414. doi: 10.1007/s10853-007-1837-x
22.
HidetoshiU. and ShigeruA.: ‘Effects of calcium addition on the foamability of molten aluminum’, J. Light Met., 1987, 37, (1), 42–47. doi: 10.2464/jilm.37.42
23.
BabcsanN., LeitlmierD. and BanhartJ.: ‘Metal foams-high temperature colloids part I. Ex situ analysis of metal foams’, Colloids Surf. A, 2005, 261, (1–3), 123–130. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2004.12.030
24.
MondalD. P., GoelM. D. and DasS.: ‘Effect of strain rate and relative density on compressive deformation behaviour of closed cell aluminum–fly ash composite foam’, Mater. Des., 2009, 30, (4), 1268–1274. doi: 10.1016/j.matdes.2008.06.059
25.
FerryM. and MounroeP. R.: ‘Enhanced recovery in particulate-reinforced aluminium composite’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2003, 358, (1–2), 142–151. doi: 10.1016/S0921-5093(03)00333-2
26.
Bo-YounH., Soo-HanP. and AraiH.: ‘Viscosity and surface tension of Al and effects of additional element’, Mater. Sci. Forum, 2003, 439, 51–56. doi: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.439.51
27.
MajlingerK. and OrbulovI. N.: ‘Characteristic compressive properties of hybrid metal matrix syntactic foams’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2014, 606, 248–256. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2014.03.100
28.
OrbulovN.: ‘Compressive properties of aluminium matrix syntactic foams’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2012, 555, 52–56. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2012.06.032
29.
RajakD. K., KumarawsamidhasL. A. and DasS.: ‘An energy absorption behaviour of foam filled structures’, Procedia Mater. Sci., 2014, 5, 164–172. doi: 10.1016/j.mspro.2014.07.254
30.
MatijasevicB. and BanhartJ.: ‘Improvement of aluminium foam technology by tailoring of blowing agent’, Scr. Mater., 2006, 54, (4), 503–508. doi: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2005.10.045
31.
LuongD. D., StrbikO. M., HammondV. H., GuptaN. and ChoK.: ‘Development of high performance lightweight aluminum alloy/SiC hollow sphere syntactic foams and compressive characterization at quasi-static and high strain rates’, J. Alloys Compd., 2013, 550, 412–422. doi: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2012.10.171
32.
RajakD. K., KumarawsamidhasL. A. and DasS.: ‘Energy absorption capabilities of aluminium foam-filled square tube’, Adv. Mater. Lett., 2015, 6, (1), 80–85.
33.
PeroniL., ScapinM., FicheraC., LehmhusD., WeiseJ., BaumeisterJ. and AvalleM.: ‘Investigation of the mechanical behaviour of AISI 316L stainless steel syntactic foams at different strain-rates’, Composites Part B, 2014, 66, 430–442. doi: 10.1016/j.compositesb.2014.06.001
34.
RajakD. K., KumarawsamidhasL. A. and DasS.: ‘Mechanical behaviour and energy absorption foam filled structures of square section under compression loading’, Appl. Mech. Mater., 2014, 592–594, 1109–1113. doi: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.592-594.1109
35.
VeyhlC., BelovaI. V., MurchG. E. and FiedlerT.: ‘Finite element analysis of the mechanical properties of cellular aluminium based on micro-computed tomography’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2011, 528, 4550–4555. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2011.02.031
36.
LuongD. D., ShunmugasamyV. C., GuptaN., LehmhusD., WeiseJ. and BaumeisterJ.: ‘Quasi-static and high strain rates compressive response of iron and Invar matrix syntactic foams’, Mater. Des., 2015, 66, 516–531. doi: 10.1016/j.matdes.2014.07.030
37.
GolestanipourM., MashhadiH. A., AbraviM. S., MalekjafarianM. M. and SadeghianM. H.: ‘Manufacturing of Al/SiCp composite foams using calcium carbonate as foaming agent’, Mater. Sci. Technol., 2011, 27, (5), 923–927. doi: 10.1179/026708310X12677993662168
