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Compressive properties of Al-A206/SiC and Mg-AZ91/SiC syntactic foams

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Abstract

Metal matrix syntactic foams are promising materials with high energy absorption capability. To study the effects of matrix strength on the quasistatic compressive properties of syntactic foams using SiC hollow particles as reinforcement, matrices of Al-A206 and Mg-AZ91 were used. Because Al-A206 is a heat-treatable alloy, matrix strength can be varied by heat treatment conditions, and foams in as-cast, T4, and T7 conditions were tested in this study. It is shown that the peak strength, plateau strength, and toughness of the foams increase with increasing yield strength of the matrix and that these foams show better performance than other foams on a specific property basis. High strain rate testing of the Mg-AZ91/SiC syntactic foams showed that there was little strain rate dependence of the peak stress under strain rates ranging from 10−3/s to 726/s.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the U.S. Army-TARDEC through Tank and Automotive Command R&D Contract No. W56HZV-08-C-0716. The authors would like to acknowledge Oliver M. Strbik III of Deep Springs Technology, LLC for supply of the SiC hollow spheres used in this study. N. Gupta acknowledges Office of Naval Research grant N00014-10-1-0988 with Dr. Yapa D.S. Rajapakse as the program manager. Disclaimer: Reference herein to any specific commercial company, product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the Department of the Army (DoA). The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the DoA and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53201, USA

    Gonzalo Alejandro Rocha Rivero, Benjamin Franklin Schultz, J.B. Ferguson & Pradeep Kumar Rohatgi

  2. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Brooklyn, New York, 11201, USA

    Nikhil Gupta

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  1. Gonzalo Alejandro Rocha Rivero
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Correspondence to Benjamin Franklin Schultz.

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Rocha Rivero, G.A., Schultz, B.F., Ferguson, J. et al. Compressive properties of Al-A206/SiC and Mg-AZ91/SiC syntactic foams. Journal of Materials Research 28, 2426–2435 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2013.176

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