Microstructure and Compression Properties of Al-Si Alloy Foams by Spark Plasma Sintering Technique

Abstract

Porous aluminum alloy has been developed by powder metallurgy route using Spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. Sintered material was produced by SPS system after getting the mixture of Al-12Si alloy and titanium hydride powders. Porous materials are prepared under various process conditions, and the pore morphology was investigated. Compression test is performed at crosshead speed of 1mm/min, 10mm/min and 100mm/min with no lubricant. The compression strength, σC i.e. plateau stress was estimated 12MPa at the density of porous materials, 0.7 Mg/m3. Densification strain εD from compression curve is around 0.6. These properties depend on pore morphology of porous materials, and it is possible to control the morphology under specific condition with this process. Plateau stress and absorbed energy of heat treated porous Al-Si alloy were estimated by measurement of a first peak stress and calculated an area up to 0.5 strain from compressive stress-starin curves. Young’s modulus is measured by starin gauge method under compression test. Porous aluminum alloy filled mold die is also produced successfully.