Abstract
Zinc alloy (ZA27) syntactic foams (SF) were manufactured using expanded perlite (EP) particles and counter-gravity infiltration casting. Due to a variation of the metallic matrix content, the density of the produced foam samples varied from 1.78 to 2.03 g·cm−3. As-cast and solution heat-treated samples were tested to investigate the compressive properties of the ZA27 syntactic foam. To this end, quasi-static compression tests were conducted. In addition, microstructural analysis of the as-cast and heat-treated syntactic foams was carried out using scanning electron microscopy. The results indicate that the heat treatment alters the microstructure of the ZA27 alloy matrix from a multiphase dendrite to a spheroidized microstructure with improved ductility. Moreover, the heat treatment considerably enhances the energy absorption and plateau stress of the syntactic foam. Optical analysis of the syntactic foams under compression shows that the dominant deformation mechanism of the as-cast foams is brittle fracture. In comparison, the heat-treated samples undergo a more ductile deformation.
Highlights
In recent years, metallic foams have attracted a great deal of attention due to their unique mechanical and physical properties [1]
The results indicate that the heat treatment alters the microstructure of the ZA27 alloy matrix from a multiphase dendrite to a spheroidized microstructure with improved ductility
The syntactic foam samples were divided into two groups, i.e., as-cast and heat-treated
Summary
Metallic foams have attracted a great deal of attention due to their unique mechanical and physical properties [1]. Their crashworthiness, energy absorption capacity and vibration damping make them promising candidate materials in industries such as automotive and construction [2,3,4]. Most of the research has focused on the fabrication and evaluation of aluminum alloy syntactic foams. Mondal et al [10] produced an Al 2014 alloy syntactic foam using mono-sized cenospheres as the filler and studied the effect of particle volume fraction on the mechanical properties of the produced aluminum syntactic foam. Taherishargh et al [11] fabricated
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