Effects of Modification and Heat Treatment on Microstructure and Mechanical Property of Two-Step Foamed ZL111 Alloy Foam

Abstract

ZL111 alloy foams with a porosity of 80% and an average pore diameter of 3.5 mm were fabricated using a two-step foaming process, and the effects of modification and heat treatment on their microstructure and mechanical property were studied. The results indicates that by Y&Sr modification, most of the eutectic silicon in the ZL111 alloy foam is transformed from plate-like into dot-like forms, and the average size of evenly distributed α-Al grain is reduced from 80~100μm to 30~40μm, which is more efficient than separate Y or Sr modifications. By combining Y and Sr modification and T6 heat treatment, the α-Al grain size of ZL111 alloy foam maintains its previous modified effect, eutectic silicon remains spherical and well-distributed, and CuAl2and Al9FeMg3Si5are dispersed homogeneously at the α-Al grain boundary. The Y&Sr modification and T6 heat treatment also significantly improved the compressive property of ZL111 alloy foam, when we compared them with the untreated ZL111 alloy foam. The compressive strength rises from 13.3 MPa to 22.6 MPa, the densification strain improves from 59.3% to 76.9%, and the energy absorption capacity increases from 4.87 MJ/m3to 13.77 MJ/m3.