Mechanical and Physical Characteristics of Bubble Alumina Reinforced Aluminum Syntactic Foams Made Through Recyclable Pressure Infiltration Technique

Abstract

Metal matrix syntactic foams (MMSFs) are advance hybrid materials which reflect synergetic combination of particle reinforced composites and close cell metal foams. Recently, MMSFs have become considerably popular for several industrial areas because of their low density, high compression strength, good ductility and perfect energy absorption ability. In this paper, Al 7075/bubble alumina syntactic foams were fabricated by recyclable pressure infiltration casting method. Macroscopic and microscopic investigations showed that almost flawless infiltration was obtained between 2 – 4 mm hollow bubble alumina spheres and total porosity values of fabricated foams varied between % 43.2 and % 45.6. As for mechanical analyses, all foam samples were subjected to quasi-static compression test (1 mm/min deformation rate) and their crucial properties such as compression strength, plateau strength, densification strain and energy absorption capacity were determined. Besides, aging heat treatment (T6) was applied to certain samples in order to explore probable effects of heat treatment on the mechanical responses. The outcomes indicated that there was a positive relationship between the aging treatment and compressive features. Under the compressive loading, even though T6 treated foams showed a tendency to brittle fracture, their as-cast variants exhibited ductile behavior.