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    Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Materials Science and Engineering: A. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Materials Science and Engineering: A, 789, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.msea.2020.139528

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A comparison of the manufacture and mechanical performance of porous aluminium and aluminium syntactic foams made by vacuum-assisted casting

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
Article number139527
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>3/07/2020
<mark>Journal</mark>Materials Science and Engineering A
Volume789
Number of pages9
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date24/05/20
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This paper compares key aspects of the manufacture and mechanical performance of porous Al, made by replication using salt beads, and structurally similar syntactic metal foams, made by replacing the salt with porous, expanded glass particles. Despite significant increases in stiffness, strength and energy absorbed, power law relationships between properties and relative density demonstrate that adding expanded glass particles is a less efficient route to increasing performance than increasing the metal fraction. That said, merit indices do indicate that 20% savings in mass are possible for stiff beams by substituting aluminium with syntactic metal foams. The manufacturing process for syntactic metal foams is shown to be simpler, driven by the lower thermal mass of the expanded glass particles and no requirement to dissolve a space holder from the structure. The balance of good performance and good manufacturability demonstrated herein, coupled with predicted low costs for raw material and manufacturing, highlights the scope for syntactic metal foams containing weak expanded glass particles to be researched and developed more widely.

Bibliographic note

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Materials Science and Engineering: A. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Materials Science and Engineering: A, 789, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.msea.2020.139528