Effect of Foaming Temperature on Bubble Size Distribution of Liquid Aluminium Foam: Modeling and Experimental Studies

Abstract

The present study examines the effect of foaming temperature on the final foam expansion and the bubble size distribution of liquid aluminium foam through mathematical modeling and validation experiments. The model calculates the rate of hydrogen release from the foaming agent (TiH2) particles, super saturation of the melt, nucleation and growth of bubbles and finally, evaluates the evolving bubble size distribution using a population balance approach. The model does not consider bubble coalescence and breakage and uses only solute diffusion for bubble growth. The simulation is performed for two conditions; firstly, for pure temperature effects and secondly, for temperature and TiH2 quantity combined effects. Upon comparison of simulation results with the experiments, following important observations are made; firstly, the predicted total number of bubbles is found to be one order of magnitude higher than the experiments while the predicted average size is one order of magnitude lower. Secondly, the spread of the predicted distributions is observed to be much narrower. These discrepancies are considered to be due to bubble coalescence and coarsening which are not modeled and shown to be strongly influenced by the foaming temperature.