Metal foam--an exotic material for lightweight structural applications

摘要

Metal foams are gaining wide attention in the present decade as structural materials because of their unique properties not exhibited by their solid counterparts. The metal foams containing high porosity and based on aluminium, magnesium, steel and titanium have been produced and their properties have been characterized. The metal foams are ultra-light especially in case of aluminium and magnesium due to low density of the base metal and presence of very high percentage of porosity in it. The porosity percentage is typically in the range of 40 percent to as high as 90 percent.