Role of alloying elements and ceramic particles on the stability and mechanical properties of magnesium foams

Abstract

Magnesium closed-cell foam is the novel class of material, presently attractive newlineamong researchers due to its lightweight and high specific strength and therefore newlinefinds potential in various structural applications. However, heavy oxidation of Mg newlinemelt hinders its processing. The present work is a novel study to produce Mg foams newlinevia melt route in ambient conditions. Mg-3Ca alloy was used as the base material newlineowing to its oxidation resistance properties. CaCO3 was used as a blowing agent. The newlinerole of alloying elements, Be and Zn on the structure of Mg alloy foams was newlineinvestigated. The influence of ceramic particles such as, SiC, TiB2 and CaO on the newlinestabilization of Mg composite foams was studied. The foam macrostructures were newlineanalyzed for defects and cell-size distribution to understand the stabilization in foams newlineover varying foaming time. Metallic single films were pulled from Mg alloy and newlinecomposite melts to establish a simplistic way for understanding the foam stabilization. newlineThe microstructural characterization of alloys/composites and their foams were newlineperformed using techniques like TG-DSC, ICP-OES, XRD, Rietveld refinement, SEM- newlineEDS, TEM and XPS analyses. The mechanical behaviour of Mg alloy and composite newlinefoams was studied to understand the role of alloying elements and ceramic particles newlineon the quasi-static compression and energy absorption properties of foams. Ultralight newline(foam density = 0.25 g/cm3) and relatively ductile Mg foams were produced in this newlinestudy. An attempt on establishing a processing-structure-property correlations for Mg newlinefoams was also made. newline newline