Fabrication of Porous Aluminum Core Sandwich Structure and Its Pore Structures Observation using X-ray computed tomography Images

Abstract

A porous aluminum (Al) is ultra-light weight and has good energy absorptivity and sound insulation property. However, the tensile strength and bending strength of porous Al are lower than those of dense materials. A sandwich structure, which is consisted of porous Al core and dense metallic face sheets, is promised for using a porous Al as a structural component. In this study, a sandwich structure consisting of A6061-ADC12 functionally graded (FG) porous Al core and A1050 Al face plates was fabricated by friction stir welding (FSW) route precursor foaming method. Moreover, the porous Al core parts of the fabricated sandwich structures were observed by X-ray computed tomography (CT) and those pore structures were evaluated using X ray CT images. Through the observation and evaluation results, it was indicated that FG porous Al core sandwich structure, which has two layers of different alloys with good pore structure, can be fabricated by selecting appropriate foaming conditions in FSW route foaming method.