A study on syntactic aluminum foams manufactured infiltrating sintered preforms of iron hollow spheres

This work analyzes the microstructure, porosity, and mechanical properties of syntactic foams obtained infiltrating 3 mm in diameter Fe hollow spheres with an Al-12Si eutectic alloy. The hollow spheres were first sintered at 800, 900, and 1000 degrees C for 1h to obtain composite porous preforms, focusing on the effect of this sintering on the manufactured syntactic foams. Results showed that the increase in the sintering temperature led to an increase in the porosity from 51 to 56 %, also increasing the percentage of Fe in the solid part of the foams and decreasing the pore cell thickness. This led to significantly higher strength and a brittle behavior for the foams obtained using spheres sintered at 1000 degrees C, while the foams manufactured using lower temperatures presented a v