Processing and Properties of Advanced Metallic Foams A DISSERTATION

Processing and Properties of Advanced Metallic Foams Alan Harold Brothers Since the development of the first aluminum foams in the middle of the 20th century [178], great advances have been made in the processing and fundamental understanding of metallic foams. As a result of these advances, metallic foams are now penetrating a number of applications where their unique suite of properties makes them superior to solid materials, such as lightweight structures, packaging and impact protection, and filtration and catalysis [3]. The purpose of this work is to extend the use of metallic foams in such applications by expanding their processing to include more sophisticated base alloys and architectures. The first four chapters discuss replacement of conventional crystalline metal foams with ones made from high-strength, low-melting amorphous metals, a substitution that offers potential for achieving mechanical properties superior to those of the best crystalline metal foams, without sacrificing the simplicity of processing methods made for low-melting crystalline alloys. Three different amorphous metal foams are developed in these chapters, and their structures and properties characterized. It is shown for the first time that amorphous metal foams, due to stabilization of shear bands during bending of their small strut-like features, are capable of compressive ductility comparable to that of ductile crystalline metal foams. A two-fold improvement