Effect of Grain Size of Calcium Carbonate Foaming Agent on Physical Properties of Eutectic Al–Si Alloy Closed Cell Foam

Aluminium foams have become popular because of their properties such as high stiffness combined with very low density. The aluminium foams are being used in many applications like automobiles, railways, aerospace, ship building, household applications etc. The development of foam with consistent quality and study of foam structure–property relation is important for both scientific and industrial applications. Metallic foams are commonly produced using hydride and carbonates foaming agents. However carbonate foaming agents are safer to handle than hydrides and produce aluminum foam with a fine, homogenous cell structure, low cost and easily available. The number of pores per inch and relative density of the foam play an important role on their physical and mechanical properties. Hence it is very important to investigate effect of grain size of calcium carbonate foaming agent on pores per inch and relative density. The present work deals with the effect of grain size of the calcium carbonate forming agent on the physical properties of an eutectic Al–Si alloy closed cell foam. The foam was produced with different grain size of calcium carbonate (150, 106, 75, 53 µm) as a foaming agent. The pores per inch and density of the foam produced with different grain size of calcium carbonates as foaming agent are determined. Relative density is in the range of 0.21–0.34, pores per inch is in the range of 11–20 for the produced eutectic Al–Si alloy closed cell foam. It is observed that as grain size of calcium carbonate used for production of aluminium foam increases, the number of pores per inch decreases, relative density decreases and porosity increases.