In the last 10 years cellular metallic materials have opened a new market of opportunities. The development of different manufacturing techniques for metallic foams and the potential broad applications field are giving an impulse to all characterization techniques. In this way, it is well known that internal architecture of foams is a determinant factor for structural and energy absorption applications. Computed tomography is a non-destructive technique that allows characterizing the microstructure of foams precisely. Moreover, this method is able to detect inhomogeneous zones in the foams (critical in structural applications). The main goal of this investigation is to analyze the ability of another non-destructive technique, the Transient Plane Source Method (TPS) to measure the thermal conductivity, as a tool to detect in-homogeneities. Both non-destructive techniques have been combined to study the internal structure of a collection of AlSi7 foams manufactured by the powder metallurgical route. Values of thermal conductivity obtained, are analyzed in terms of the structure observed by CT, as validation technique.
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