Effects of Thermal Processing on Closed-Cell Aluminium Foams

• Published in: Characterization of Minerals, Metals, and Materials 2017 p. 1
• Main Authors: Brown, A. D., Hutchison, W. D., Islam, M. A., Kader, M. A., Escobedo, J. P., Hazell, P. J.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer Nature 2017; Springer International Publishing AG; Springer International Publishing
• Series: The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series
• Subjects: Aluminium foams; Energy absorption; General Engineering & Project Administration; General References; Heat treatments; Materials; Materials science; Mechanical properties; Metals & Metallurgy; Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy; Mining Engineering & Extractive Metallurgy; Testing of materials; XRD
• ISBN: 9783319513812; 3319513818
• ISSN: 2367-1181; 2367-1696
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-51382-9_24

The effects of post-foaming thermal processing on the quasi-static compressive strength of closed-cell aluminium foam with an average relative density of 0.56 g/cc have been investigated. Samples were subject to one of four material conditions: as-received (AR), warm aged (WA), solution treated (ST), and annealed (AT). X-ray diffraction (XRDXRD) was performed to determine a relationship between each material condition and macro-crystallographic texture of the dendritic α-Al phase. It was found that all heat treated samples contained clear deviations from random texture towards the exterior regions of the samples, indicating non-uniform recrystallization kinetics. The ST and WA samples exhibited the highest yield stresses and energy absorptionEnergy absorption, with the AT samples exhibiting the lowest. Additionally, it was found that the AR and WA conditions lost 12.8 and 15.6% of their total mass from brittle cell wall crumbling, whereas the AT and ST conditions lost 2.5 and 3.0% of their total mass.