Metallic Foams

Metallic foam is a relatively new class of materials that exhibit a combination of intersting and attractive properties including high porosity, high internal surface area, and high specific strength. Because of this, the materials has been developed and utilized in a number of engineering and functional applications such as lightweight automotive structure, heat exchanger, catalytic support, and bone-replacement implant applications.

Research in the area of metallic foams conducted by our research unit is focused on the development of fabrication techniques of metallic foams and investigation of material properties that result from the presence of pores and solid networks within foam structures. Mechanical properties of the materials are analyzed in relation to material modelling developed in the study. Metallic foams under investigation include light-weight aluminum-base foam as well as nickel-base foam for high-temperature applications.