Materials and Design 35 (2012) 419–424

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Materials and Design

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Compressive properties and energy absorption behavior of Al–Al2O3 composite

foam synthesized by space-holder technique
Mostafa Alizadeh ⇑, Morteza Mirzaei-Aliabadi
Department of Metals, International Center for Science, High Technology & Environmental Sciences, Kerman, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, open cell Al–Al2O3 composite foams having different volume fractions of Al2O3 (0–10 vol.%)
Received 25 July 2011 were synthesized by using the space-holder technique. Various amounts of spherical carbamide particles
Accepted 26 September 2011 with mean size of 1.2 mm were used for producing porosity fractions of 50, 60 and 70 vol.%. Compression
Available online 2 October 2011
test was performed on the foam samples for evaluating the compressive properties and energy absorp-
tion behavior of them. The results showed that the compressive properties and energy absorption behav-
Keywords: ior depend on the volume fraction of Al2O3 and porosity fraction. Generally, by decreasing the porosity
A. Metal matrix composite
fraction, the energy absorption capacity and compressive properties were raised. The composite foams
B. Foams
C. Powder metallurgy
containing 2 vol.% Al2O3 showed superior compressive properties and energy absorption behavior in con-
trast to other foams studied in this work. Also it was found, as the strain during the compression test is
increased, the energy absorption capacity is increased too. It is noticeable that, the slope of energy
absorption capacity–strain curves decreases by increasing the porosity fraction.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction by adding the ZrO2 particles to the open cell Al foam and Mondal
et al. [10] investigated the effect of fly ash particle on the compres-
Many applications of metallic foams require deeply under- sive deformation and energy absorption characteristics of closed
standing on compressive behavior of them, so many experimental cell Al foam. Al2O3 is known as an appropriate reinforcement for
and theoretical studies have been carried out in order to determine the Al matrix because it is chemically inert with Al [11].
the basic compressive properties of metallic foams. For example, Although the Al foams with open cell structures have wide
Taher et al. [1] evaluated crashworthiness characteristics of foams applications in industry, but most of researches have focused on
under axial compression. Tao et al. [2] attempted to improve the the closed cell foams [12–15]. Some of these researches found that,
compressive strength of Al foam by toughening the matrix of the the ceramic reinforcement can raises the compressive strength of
foam. Konstantinidis et al. [3] developed 3D analytical models for Al foam.
determination of the mechanical properties of Al foams under A space-holder technique based on the powder metallurgy
compression load. Rabiei and Vendra [4] compared the compres- method has been developed for producing the open cell foams.
sive properties of foams produced by different techniques. The Usually, NaCl [16] and carbamide [17] are used as space holder
most common metal which was selected for energy absorption but other materials such as Mg [18] also are applied as space
applications is aluminum and its alloys due to their light weight holder materials too. One advantage of the foams which were pro-
and the excellent corrosion resistance [5–7]. duced by this method is controllability of the pore shape and size
Deformation tests revealed that Al foams exhibit an excellent by initial shape and size of the space-holder particles [19].
energy absorption property due to their wide-plateau deformation The main goal of this work is, to manufacture the open cell
region [8]. But, their compressive strength is so low for using it as a Al–Al2O3 composite foam by using the space-holder technique
load bearing material. Therefore, improving the compressive and evaluating the effect of volume fraction of Al2O3 and porosity
strength of Al foams without reduction of their energy absorption fraction on the compressive properties and energy absorption
is necessary. To get this aim, strength of cell walls may be behavior. Another purpose is to find suitable volume fraction of
improved by using stronger and stiffer second-phase reinforce- Al2O3 which exhibits superior compressive properties and energy
ments. For example, Du et al. [9] attempted to increase cell walls absorption characteristics.

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 3426226611, mobile: +98 9133541004; fax: 2. Materials and experimental procedure
+98 3426226617.
E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] Pure Al powder and fine Al2O3 powder were used as the cell
(M. Alizadeh). walls materials. Fig. 1 shows morphologies of these powders

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2011.09.059
420 M. Alizadeh, M. Mirzaei-Aliabadi / Materials and Design 35 (2012) 419–424

Fig. 1. SEM image of Al (a) and Al2O3 (b) powders as starting materials.

provided by a scanning electron microscope (SEM, S360, Cam- Commercial spherical carbamide particles were sieved (to reach
bridge, UK). The Al powder includes a wide size distribution of the mean size of 1.2 mm in diameter) and used as space-holder
plate-like particles and the Al2O3 powders exhibit a narrow distri- material. Fig. 2 shows image of carbamide particles.
bution of irregular shaped particles. Al–Al2O3 composite powders including 0, 2, 6 and 10 vol.%
Al2O3 were prepared by high energy mechanical milling of Al and
Al2O3 powders by using a planetary ball mill in a hardened chro-
mium steel vial. The milling process was carried out at 300 rpm
for 5 h under argon atmosphere with the ball (10 mm diameter)
to powder weight ratio 10:1. For avoiding any excessive cold weld-
ing of powder particles amongst themselves and internal surfaces
of the vial, 1–3 wt.% ethanol were used as process control agent
(PCA). As the volume fraction of Al2O3 was increased, the amount
of PCA was increased too.
For manufacturing the foam specimens, the Al–Al2O3 compos-
ite powders were mixed with the carbamide particles in a rolling
container for 1 h. The weight ratios of the composite powders to
the space-holder particles were calculated to obtain the porosity
fraction of 50, 60 and 70 vol.%. A little amount of ethanol was
sprinkled during mixing process for avoiding the segregation of
carbamide particles and composite powders. The mixture of
composite powder-carbamide was uniaxially compacted at
450 MPa into a cylindrical steel mold (d = 13 mm, h = 13 mm).
The carbamide removing was carried out during the sintering
process in an electrical furnace under argon atmosphere. For this
purpose, the green specimens were heated from room tempera-
ture up to 140 °C with the heating rate of 5 °C/min, then were
Fig. 2. The image of the carbamide particles as space-holder material.
heated up to 280 °C during 1 h. After that the specimens were

Fig. 3. The image of the foam sections representing the cell structures on the cross section (a) longitudinal section (b) and tailored morphology (c) of the cells.
 M. Alizadeh, M. Mirzaei-Aliabadi / Materials and Design 35 (2012) 419–424 421

heated up to 580 °C during 30 min and remained at this temper- cessed through powder metallurgy and concluded that, except
ature for 4 h. the strain rate, relative density and the volume fraction of rein-
Fig. 3 shows the typical microstructures of the present foams forcement, the chemical composition of the foam affects the slope
with the porosity of 50 vol.%. According to Fig. 3a, the pores on of compressive stress–strain curve too.
cross section (which is vertical to the compacting direction) have According to Fig. 4, both volume fractions of Al2O3 and porosity
a round shape. While the pores on longitudinal section (which is fractions (or relative density) affect the compressive behavior of
parallel to the compacting direction) (Fig. 3b) are elliptical. This the present foams. Comparison between the curves 1 and 2 shows
structure may be related to this fact that, the spherical carbamide that, the foam with higher porosity fraction exhibit a longer and
particles distorted their original shape and became flat along the flatter plateau region. This result also was observed by Naiqin
compacting direction. Fig 3c shows, the tailored distribution of et al. [17]. They reported that, the foam with lower density (or
the pores in the foams. higher porosity fraction) exhibits a longer and flatter plateau
The compression test was performed according to ASTM E9–89a region because this structure gives the chance to the cell walls
standard [20] by a universal test machine (Instron 5586 300 kN) at for collapsing and deforming. This behavior also has been observed
a nominal strain rate of 3  103 s1. Whereas the compression for the foams which have been produced by the casting method.
test results were going to compare with together, the length to For example, Daoud [24] Synthesized ZnAl22 syntactic foam com-
diameter ratio of samples was equal to one. posites via casting and found that, the foams containing high vol-
ume fraction of microballoons (porosity) exhibit a longer and
flatter plateau region.
3. Results and discussion
Yu et al. [25] produced closed cell AlSi9Mg foams and AlSi9Mg–
SiCp composite foams with different SiCp volume fractions by
3.1. Compressive behaviors
means of direct foaming of melt using CaCO3 blowing agent and
studied the compressive behaviors of these foams. They observed
The typical compressive stress–strain curves of the samples
that, the compressive stress–strain curve of AlSi9Mg–SiCp compos-
with various volume fractions of Al2O3 and porosity fractions are
ite foams was not smooth and exhibits some fluctuations, while
shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen that, the present composite foams
AlSi9Mg foams were smoother. Similarly, the present work (com-
exhibit a stress–strain behavior which represent three different
parison between the curves 2 and 3 in Fig. 4) shows that, the pla-
regions, i.e., (1) linear elastic deformation at low stresses, (2) a long
teau region for the Al–Al2O3 composite foam is more uneven and is
plateau region during which the cell walls buckled and collapsed,
shorter than the plateau region for Al foam. This phenomenon can
and (3) a densification region causing a sudden increase in the
be due to higher brittleness of the cell walls in the composite foam
stress.
with respect to the Al foam. In the composite foam, because of wall
Naiqin et al. [17] synthesized open cell aluminum foams with
brittleness, a rapid fracture occurs for walls and leads to stress
spherical pores by space-holder method and investigated the effect
reduction. After collapsing some cells, the stress is raised again
of pore size and relative density on the compressive stress–strain
[26].
curves. They found that, if the foam relative density was high, then
Fig. 5 shows the effect of volume fraction of Al2O3 on the com-
the plateau region was short with higher slope. While, the results
pressive strength of the foams at various porosity fractions. It can
in the present investigation (Fig. 4) shows that the slope of the pla-
be seen that, decreasing the porosity fraction, raises the all curves.
teau region of composite foams is not affected by the relative den-
At a constant porosity fraction, the compressive strength of the
sity (or volume fraction of porosity). Also, Luo et al. [21]
composite foams increases by raising the volume fraction of
investigated the compressive behavior of AlSi9Mg–SiCp composite
Al2O3. Similar results reported by Luo et al. [21]. They investigated
foams and found that the slope of compressive stress–strain curves
the effect of SiC particles on the compressive strength of Al foams
is not affected by the relative density. Their results are in a reason-
and reported that, when the porosity fraction is constant, the yield
able agreement with the results of the present work. It has been re-
stress of the composite foams increases with increasing the volume
ported by Luo et al. [22] that, the slope of compressive stress–
fraction of SiC particles. This indicates that, SiC particles have a
strain curves would be increased with increasing the strain rate.
strengthening effect on the foams. Also, the results of present work
Rabiei and Neville [23] investigated the composite foams pro-

Fig. 4. Typically compressive stress–strain curves of the samples with various Fig. 5. Effect of the volume fraction of Al2O3 on the compressive strength of foams
volume fractions of Al2O3 (Vp) and porosity fractions (Vc). at various porosity fractions (Vc).
422 M. Alizadeh, M. Mirzaei-Aliabadi / Materials and Design 35 (2012) 419–424

(Fig. 5) indicates that, Al2O3 particles in the range of 2–10 vol.% has
a strengthening effect on the foams. However, Fig. 5 shows that,
the strengthening effect of reinforcement depends on the porosity
fraction of the foams. In the samples with 50 and 60 vol.% porosity,
the strengthening effect is observed after 2 vol.% Al2O3 while the
foam with 70 vol.% porosity get a considerable strength after
6 vol.% Al2O3. In other words, for delaying the first collapsing in
the high porosity fraction foams, it is necessary to add more
strengthening particles.
The Young’s modulus of the PM (powder metallurgy) and cast
composite foams have been studied extensively using experimen-
tal, numerical and analytical techniques. The results showed a
power form relationship between the relative density and the
Young’s modulus for closed and open cell foams [3,27,28]. How-
ever, due to higher constraints arising form the existence of the cell
walls in the closed cell foams, their Young’s modulus is higher by
several magnitudes compared with the open cell foams with the
same relative density [3]. The literatures showed that, when the
specimen density is decreased, the Young’s modulus is decreased Fig. 7. Effect of the volume fraction of Al2O3 on the plateau stress of foams at
too. On other words, decreasing the porosity fraction leads to various porosity fractions (Vc).
increasing the Young’s modulus of foams.
In the present study, the variations of Young’s modulus at increasing the volume fraction of Al2O3. With increasing the wall
different volume fractions of Al2O3 and porosity fractions are shown brittleness, during the first collapsing, more walls are broken and
in Fig. 6. According to this figure, for all volume fractions of Al2O3, the plateau stress is more decreased. In fact, in the composite
decreasing the porosity fraction makes a significant enhancement foams, some cracks initiate in the cell walls and the walls experi-
in the Young’s modulus. This result is confirmed by the above liter- ence fast fracture because of wall brittleness, so the stress is re-
atures. According to the results of the present study (Fig. 6), at a duced considerably [26].
constant porosity fraction, as the volume fraction of Al2O3 is However, increasing the volume fraction of Al2O3 from 2 up to
increased from 0 up to 6 vol.%, a slight increasing in the Young’s 10 vol.% cause decreasing the plateau stress, but the rate of this
modulus is observed. After that, a considerable enhancement is decreasing depends on the porosity fraction. In other words, with
observed up to 10 vol.% Al2O3. increasing the porosity fraction, the rate of plateau stress decreas-
Fig. 7 shows the effect of volume fraction of Al2O3 on the ing is reduced. This may be attributed to this fact that, after the
plateau stress at various porosity fractions. As it can be seen, maximum stress, the deformation is followed by compressing
decreasing the porosity fraction raises the all curves. For all poros- and distortion of cells. Therefore, the plastically deformation of
ity fractions, the plateau stress of the composite foams is more the pores will compensate the wall brittleness.
than the Al foams. Raising the volume fraction of Al2O3 from 0
up to 2 vol.%, leads to increasing the plateau stress. But after 3.2. Energy absorption
2 vol.% Al2O3, the plateau stress is not increased. In fact, the effect
of volume fraction of Al2O3 on the plateau stress depends on the One of the important technological properties to estimate the
porosity fraction. As it can be seen, the plateau stress in the foam application of metallic foams is energy absorption characteristic.
with 50 vol.% porosity decreases considerably by rising the volume The energy absorption capacity during compressive deformation
fraction of Al2O3 from 2 up to 10 vol.%. This behavior may be re- is defined as the energy which is required for deformation of the
lated to the cell walls brittleness which is raised because of foam to a specific strain. This energy can be evaluated by integrat-
ing the area under the compressive stress–strain curve as fallows
[26]:
Z e
WV ¼ rðeÞde ð1Þ
0

Some methods for enhancement of energy absorption have

been reported in the literatures. For example, Myoshi et al. [29]
enhanced the energy absorption of metallic foams by increasing
the aspect ratio of cell wall thickness against the cell edge length
with the reduction of cell size. Luo et al. [21] found that, the energy
absorption capacity is strongly depended on the relative density
for the composite foams. On other words, the energy absorption
capacity increases with rising the relative density and compressive
strain. Zhihua et al. [30] reported that, increasing the absorption
energy with the relative density is due to this fact that, the yield
stress increases with the relative density, so the area under the
compressive stress–strain curve also increases. Yu et al. [31] found
that, the ZA22–Al2O3f composite foams strongly follow the volume
fractions of reinforcement. They concluded that, the energy
absorption of the composite foams depends on the resistance of
metallic matrix and reinforcement to the compressive loads.
Fig. 6. Effect of the volume fraction of Al2O3 on the Young’s modulus of foams at In the present study, Fig. 8 shows the energy absorption capac-
various porosity fractions (Vc). ities of the Al and composite foams at various porosity fractions
 M. Alizadeh, M. Mirzaei-Aliabadi / Materials and Design 35 (2012) 419–424 423

and volume fractions of Al2O3. This figure has been plotted for the absorption characteristic of the composite foams. The energy
strain which is according to the end of the plateau region. Similar absorption efficiency can be calculated as follows:
to the literatures, the present work shows that, at a constant vol- Re
ume fraction of Al2O3, decreasing the porosity fraction (or increas- 0
rðeÞde
g¼ ð2Þ
ing the relative density) leads to increasing the energy absorption rmax e
capacity. Comparing Fig. 8 with Fig. 7 reveals that, variations of en-
The term (rmax e) is the ideal energy absorption, where rmax is the
ergy absorption capacity with volume fraction of Al2O3 is similar to
maximum stress and e is the specific strain [32].
variations of plateau stress with volume fraction of Al2O3. It can be
Simchi et al. [33] reported that, the maximum energy absorp-
seen that, for all porosity fractions, the energy absorption capacity
tion efficiency of AlSi7 foam is decreased by the SiC addition.
of the composite foams is more than that for Al foams. Therefore,
According to their results, the composite foams show more brittle
because of resistance of metallic matrix and reinforcement to the
and non-uniform deformation with less energy absorption effi-
compressive loads [31] and increased plateau stress, addition of
ciency. Also, Yu et al. [34] found that the presence of SiC particles
alumina particles to the Al foams improves the energy absorption
in ZA22–SiCp composite foams results in large stress fluctuation
behavior.
during compression, and this leads to a slightly high energy
Fig. 9 shows the energy absorption capacity of foams after com-
absorption capacity and low energy absorption efficiencies as com-
pression strains of 5–45% at different porosity fractions and vol-
pared with ZA22 foams. Yu et al. [31] found that, the energy
ume fractions of Al2O3. As it can be seen, for all foams, the
absorption efficiency exhibits an irrelevant tendency to relative
energy absorption capacity is increased by raising the strain. Also
density and the volume fractions of the Al2O3 short fiber.
the slopes of WV–e curves have been shown in the Fig. 9. For both
The present work reveals that, although the energy absorption
Al foams (Vp = 0) and composite foams, as the porosity fraction is
efficiency exhibits an irrelevant tendency to the relative density,
increased, the slope of WV–e curves is decreased. For example, in
but the volume fraction of Al2O3 particles have a considerable
the Al foam, decreasing the porosity fraction from 70 up to
50 vol.%, leads to increasing the slope of WV–e curve from 0.25 to
6.77 MJ/m3. This behavior is observed in the composite foams
too. According to Fig. 9, addition of 10 vol.% Al2O3 to the Al foam
with porosity of 70 vol.% changes the slope of curve from 0.25 to
4.77 MJ/m3. Similar results have been reported by the literatures
for different composite systems. Yu et al. [31] investigated
deformation and energy absorption characteristics of Zn–Al foam
reinforced by Al2O3 short fiber. They found that, the energy absorp-
tion capacity of ZA22–Al2O3f is increased by raising the strain. The
composite foams absorb a slight energy in the elastic region
whereas they can absorb a large amount of energy in the plateau
region. The slope of WV–e curve of ZA22–Al2O3f composite foam
strongly depends on the volume fraction of Al2O3 short fiber and
volume fraction of porosity. Comparison between the present work
(Fig. 9) and the results of Yu et al. [31] shows that, the effect of
Al2O3 particles on the slope of WV–e curves is similar to the effect
of Al2O3 short fiber. Zhihua et al. [30] found that, the slope of WV–e
curves is increased with increasing the strain rate. So, it can be
resulted that the effect of Al2O3 on the slope of WV–e curves is
similar to the effect of strain rate. Fig. 9. The energy absorption capacity of the foams after compression strains of
In the present work, except energy absorption capacity, energy 5–45% at different porosities (Vc) and volume fraction of Al2O3 (Vp).

absorption efficiency (g) is also investigated to evaluate the energy

Fig. 10. The energy absorption efficiencies (at e = 0.3) of the Al and composite
Fig. 8. Effect of the volume fraction of Al2O3 on the energy absorption capacity at foams as a function of the volume fraction of Al2O3 at different porosity fractions
various porosity fractions (Vc). (Vc).
424 M. Alizadeh, M. Mirzaei-Aliabadi / Materials and Design 35 (2012) 419–424

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