Title
Aluminum Matrix Syntactic Foam Fabricated with Additive Manufacturing
Abstract
Syntactic foams are lightweight structural composites with hollow reinforcing particles embedded in a soft matrix. These materials have applications in transportation, packaging, and armor due to properties such as relatively high specific stiffness, acoustic dampening, and impact absorption. Aluminum matrices are the most widely studied of metal matrix syntactic foams, but there is little to no research in regards to processing the foams with additive manufacturing. It is theorized that the fast cooling rates and limited kinetic energy input of additive could reduce two issues commonly associated with processing syntactic foams: microsphere flotation in the melt and microsphere fracture during processing. In this study, 4047 aluminum blended with glass particles was deposited on a 4047 Al substrate using an additive process. Characterization of the foams include mechanical testing and microstructural analysis.
Recommended Citation
M. Spratt et al., "Aluminum Matrix Syntactic Foam Fabricated with Additive Manufacturing," Proceedings of the 28th Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium (2017, Austin, TX), pp. 242-248, University of Texas at Austin -- Laboratory for Freeform Fabrication (LFF), Aug 2017.
Meeting Name
28th Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium (2017: Aug. 7-9, Austin, TX)
Department(s)
Materials Science and Engineering
Second Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Aluminum; Lightweight; Composite; DED
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1053-2153
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2017 University of Texas at Austin -- Laboratory for Freeform Fabrication (LFF), All rights reserved.