Effect of high weight percent of space holder on porosity and microstructure of aluminum foam manufactured by sintering-dissolution process (SDP)

Abstract

This experiment was carried out to study the effect of high weight percent of space holder on porosity and microstructure of aluminum foam manufactured by Sintering-Dissolution Process (SDP). SDP consist of mixing, compacting, sintering and also dissolution process. In this study, aluminum (Al) and sodium chloride (NaCl) were mixed together to produce a homogeneous mixture. The composition of space-holder (NaCl) content is 45%, 55%, 65%, and 75%. Mixture powder was compressed according to compaction pressure 200MPa at room temperature and then was sintered for 2 hours. The sintered sample were removed from the furnace and placed it into warm, running water stream for 45 minutes to dissolves the spaceholder content (NaCl) particles embedded in the aluminum matrices. From the results, the spaceholder content can affect the total porosity of the sintered aluminum. The higher space-holder content, the higher porosity can be achieved. The porous aluminum with 75% of space-holder produces highest value of porosity which is 74% of porosity.