Production of aluminum foam sandwich with various geometric shapes and investigation of their compressive properties

Abstract

In this study, various sandwich foam structures manufactured from Al/Si7 foams, by using powder metallurgy route, have been investigated. For production of Al foam, 1%wt foaming agent (TiH2) and 7%wt Si powders were added to Al powders and mixed. Mixed powders were compacted, sintered, extruded and rolled to produce foamable precursor samples. Then these samples were applied to the foaming process to produce spherical, cylindrical and rectangular samples. Sandwich structures were produced by placing of foamable precursors in between the Al sheets and then compression test was performed. The results obtained indicate that, dimensional limitation can be overcome by using PM route. However, compressive properties and energy absorption of spherical and cylindrical layered sandwich structures were found to be lower compared to traditional sandwich foam structure.