3D investigation of cellular materials properties by 3D microtomography

• Published in: E-journal of Nondestructive Testing Vol. 7; no. 2
• Main Authors: Illerhaus, B, Jasiuniene, E, Goebbels, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.02.2002
• ISSN: 1435-4934

For the characterisation of the cellular metals (foams) the knowledge of the inner structure is important. The mechanical properties of the foams depend on the structure of the material. Porous materials most often are produced by foaming (not casting), therefore the quality over the larger areas has to be controlled. For a check at one glance the spatial density distribution should be represented in a 2D image. When the pores in the porous materials are closed, the distribution of the pore sizes can be determined and too big pores can be marked. For the open pore materials the connections between pores can be detected. For such materials thin wall areas can be separated from node areas (where several walls meet together). 3D image comparison before and after the compression yields the image of the partial shift and internal deformation zones. This allows a correlation with the other parameters.