Effects of Addition of SiC and TiB2 Particles on Structural and Mechanical Properties of PM Al-Si Foams

Abstract

To investigate the structural and mechanical properties of Al-Si 7 wt%-SiC x wt%-TiB2 y wt%-TiH2 1 wt% foams produced by powder metallurgy, five distinct compositions including Al-Si7-SiC3, Al-Si7-SiC5, Al-Si7-TiB23, Al-Si7-SiC3-TiB23 and Al-Si7-SiC7-TiB27 were prepared. The effects of adding SiC and TiB2 particles, together and separately, on attainable density, cell structure and compressive behavior of such foam were examined. It was found that increasing the amount of SiC and TiB2 particles in Al-Si foams improves yield strength. The results also showed that addition of ceramic particles increases non-uniformity of cell structure. Furthermore, increasing TiB2 does not significantly affect maximum expansion and therefore does not affect the minimum density.