Preparation of High Performance Aluminum Foam Using Carbon Fibers as Stabilizing Additive

Carbon fibers are used as novel stabilizing additives for aluminum foams production at the aim of manufacturing metallic foams of high mechanical performance. The effect of carbon fiber fraction on the foam structure and mechanical property is studied in the present paper. Results shows that the change in foam structure can be slowed down by increasing fiber fraction, which would led to more stable foam. The yield strength of aluminum foams increase with fiber fraction, but the foams are also getting brittle. High performance aluminum foams can also prepared by using aluminum alloy as start material, and the resulting foams show much higher compressive strength than that of commercial aluminum foams.