A Study on the Quasi-static Compression Behavior of 5056 Aluminum Alloy Foams

In this paper, 5056 aluminum alloy foams with different percentages of calcium carbonate as foaming agents have been produced, and the physical and mechanical properties of the foams have been studied. quasi-static compression tests have been carried out to determine the mechanical properties of foamed material. the effects of the amount of calcium carbonate on the size of the pores, the minimum thickness of the walls, density, compressive strength and energy absorption capacity of foams have been investigated. the uniform structure of the pores has been observed in foam specimens with 1.5, 1.8 and 2.1 wt% caco3. increasing the amount of caco3 foaming agent from 1.5% to 2.1% has increased the average size of the pores by more than 180% and reduced the thickness of cell walls by 90%. so, the density and the relative density of the aluminum foams have been reduced by 28.6%. the results also show that increasing the amount of caco3 foaming agent decreases compressive strength, the absorbed energy and the elastic modulus of 5056 aluminum foams. by increasing the amount of foaming agent from 1.5% to 2.1%, the elastic modulus has reduced by about 16%, and a decrease of 21% has been seen in the energy absorbed by the foam at the strain of 0.4.