Evaluation of mechanical properties of porous 6061 alloys fabricated by the powder compression and induction heating process

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the mechanical properties of 6061 Al foam products, which were fabricated by the powder compression and multistep induction heating method, and to build the database necessary for computer-aided modeling or foam components design. In this study, 6061 Al foams with various porosity fractions were fabricated according to the porosity fractions-final heating temperature curve. The relationships between porosity fraction and morphological properties (porosity diameter, number per unit area of porosities, and surface skin thickness) were investigated. Mechanical properties such as compressive strength, energy absorption capacity, and efficiency were investigated to evaluate the feasibility of foams as crash-energy-absorbing components. Furthermore, the effect of the surface skin thickness on the plateau stress and strain sensitivity of the 6061 Al foam with low porosities (pct) was studied. 35 instances of 6061.