Foaming of pure aluminium by TiH2

R. Soltani1, Z. Sarajan2 and M. Soltani*3

The Al/TiH2 precursor was heated in an infrared furnace to melt aluminium and to decompose
TiH2, which resulted in the H2 gas generation in molten aluminium. Titanium hydride (TiH2) powder
as a foaming agent was added to the aluminium melt. The aim of this paper is to understand the
detailed decomposition behaviour of TiH2 powder and to control the phenomenon by a heat
treatment for the fabrication of fine aluminium foams by the melt route. We have found differences
in the decomposition behaviour between the as received TiH2 powders. The influence of the heat
treatment temperature on the decomposition modification is more significant than time. There was
an adequate temperature range for a satisfactory blowing behaviour. When the heating
temperature was low, the precursor did not expand sufficiently.
Keywords: Morphology of pores, Aluminium, Titanium hydride, Casting, Cell structure

Introduction superior performance in terms of energy absorption with

respect to polymeric foams, even considering the greater
The research and development of metal foams started weight per volume unit. One of the advantages in using
since 1940s. The earliest report was the patent technol- metal foams, like aluminium foams, is the greater range
ogy of Sosnick who prepared metal foams through the of allowable temperatures: for polymers, the limit is
gasification of low melting point substance. In 1956, ,100uC, whereas for aluminium foams, the limit is
Borksten Research Laboratory Inc. first prepared alumi- five times larger.2,14 There are plenty of methods for
nium foam through molten body direct foaming aluminium foaming such as casting, powder metallurgy
process.1–4 Then, Foamalum Corp. and Italy Corp. put and deposition. Among these methods, casting is being
this technology into practice.5–7 In 1987, Japan made a widely used for its capability to producing high porosity
breakthrough in the research of metal foam materials. In foams and commercially low cost compared with the
addition, IFAM in Germany and Alcan International others.15–17 Essentially, foamed aluminium products are
Limited in Canada both made great progress in the composite of gaseous pores and metal matrix that contain
production technique of metal foam materials, most porosity with a range of 70–90%; thus, controlling the
of which were about aluminium foam materials.6–9 morphology of cell structure and their homogeneous
Compared with traditional materials, aluminium foam distribution during the foaming process of aluminium
materials have the advantages of low density, high melt is important. Most respected properties to these
stiffness, against impact, low thermal conductivity, low kinds of metal products such as sound and mechanical
magnetic conductivity and fine damping, so they have vibration absorption, heat transfer and mechanical
become one of the fields in high technology material behaviour are related to cell structure.9,10 The two main
research all over the world. In recent years, there has been approaches in producing Al foams are gas introduction
a growing demand for the use of metal foams, especially into the melted alloy and foaming of compacted powders,
aluminium and its alloy for automotive, railway and which is the most common and commercial to Al
aerospace applications, where weight reduction and foaming. The second method consists of heating a
improvement in safety are considered. For a successful precursor made of scattered foaming agent particles in
usage of closed cell aluminium foams in load carrying, an aluminium matrix heated to the melting point.15,16
applications such as sandwich panels, knowledge of Commercial open cell aluminium alloy foams are sub-
tensile, fracture and fatigue properties is important.10–13 jected to chemical dissolution to reduce their density.12
Other usage of this kind of material is for sound or impact Titanium hydride is decomposed at ,465uC, which is
and mechanical vibration energy absorption. Aluminium below the melting point of Al–Si (570–590uC), and this
closed cell foams are of increasing importance because of alloy is formulated according to the chemical reaction
their energy absorption capabilities combined with good TiH2(s)RTi(s)zH2(g). TiH2 powder in the size range of
thermal and acoustic properties. Aluminium foams have 40–50 mm of ,1?5 wt-% was used as foaming agent. The
performance of conventional aluminium alloy foams
can be improved by two approaches: altering the cell
1
Department of Industrial Engineering, Masjed Soleyman Branch, Islamic morphologies, including the form, shape, size and
Azad University, Masjed Soleyman, Iran statistical distribution of the individual cell and modify-
2
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Islamic Azad
University-Yazd Branch, Yazd, Iran ing the properties of the solid cell wall materials by
3
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic physical or chemical methods such as heat treatment.2,13
Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran Further, some research was conducted on the uniaxial
*Corresponding author, email [email protected] compressive behaviour of closed cell especially for Al–Si

ß W. S. Maney & Son Ltd. 2014

Received 4 July 2013; accepted 14 July 2013
DOI 10.1179/1433075X13Y.0000000161 Materials Research Innovations 2014 VOL 000 NO 000 1
 Soltani and Soltani Foaming of pure aluminium by TiH 2

1 Experimental set-up for foaming process of pure aluminium

alloy foams manufactured by accumulative roll bonding Ø50 mm) as the blowing agent. When the stirring torque
processes.18 The main goal of this study is to investigate of the melt reaches 0?29 Nm, the titanium hydride
the influences of titanium hydride content as a foaming powder (0?5–2?0 wt-%) is added and dispersed into the
agent on porosity percentage, size and cell structure melt. Two minutes after the impeller stirring reaches the
uniformity of the foamed pure aluminium. Mechanical speed of 1400 rev min21, titanium hydride powder acts
properties like strength and hardness value and hardness as a foaming agent and the melt is gradually foamed.
uniformity throughout the length with respect to the Melts are held in the furnace at 550uC to allow the
porosity are important and need further study and are blowing agent to completely decompose. In this stage,
beyond the scope of this work. bubbles in the melt continuously grow with time and a
melt with a cellular structure is formed. The liquid metal
was stirred under a hot argon atmosphere at ,100uC
Experimental and a maximum flow of 2460 cm3 min21. Argon was
This study is based on an experimental procedure and directly injected inside the melt to control the oxidation
consists of five stages. The first step is melting 1 kg of during the foaming process. This controlled atmosphere
this alloy in Al2O3 coated steel crucible under argon decreases magnesium loss to the minimum. This time
atmosphere. Liquidus temperature of the pure alumi- interval is defined as holding foaming stage whose
nium used in this study is 642uC. The liquidus duration is defined as holding time. Finally, the crucible
temperature of this alloy was calculated by Pro-Cast is removed from the furnace and the foamed melt is
software based on chemical composition. The chemical cooled in air, and in the end, solidification occurs. The
composition of the material before and after addition of experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 1.
titanium hydride is shown in Table 1. The second step is
the addition of aluminium powder (5 wt-%, the purity of
Al .99?9 wt-% with 60 mm in diameter) as the adjuster
Results and discussion
into the melt by the impellor with a constant stirring Porosity content as a function of holding temperature
speed of 550 rev min21 to raise the viscosity of the melt. shows that optimum temperature is between 620 and
The viscosity of the aluminium melt was measured by 660uC. The vertical cross-section of foamed aluminium
monitoring the torque moment of the paddle axle. To samples at different holding temperature is shown in
improve the dispersion of the foaming agent in the base Fig. 2. This figure exhibits cell structure variations in
metal and to improve the consistency of the foam, foamed aluminium and shows that at the different
mechanical stirring was instituted. This was accom- temperatures, pore size has been varied; also, there are
plished using as a stirrer a disc of stainless steel, 2 inches few bubble zones at the bottom. Figure 2a and d shows
in diameter, cut at the radius in four or five places with foamed aluminium cell structure at the holding tem-
the blades bent so that they formed a multibladed fan. perature of 620 and 660uC. There is a non-uniform cell
The stirring unit was mounted at the end of an 18 in structure in these products. It is explained by TiH2
long, 3/8 in diameter rod driven by the stirrer motor decomposition into titanium and hydrogen at this range
operating at 400–1600 rev min21. The next step is the of temperature. As the temperature exceeds the favourite
addition of titanium hydride powder (purity .98 wt-%, holding temperature, equilibrium hydrogen pressure

Table 1 Chemical composition of pure aluminium

Fe Zn CU Mn Ni Ti Cr Sn Pb

Before addition 0.001 0.012 0.002 0.001 0.001 0.100 0.001 0.001 0.001
After addition 0.001 0.002 0.09 0.001 0.001 0.136 0.001 0.001 0.011

Materials Research Innovations 2014 VOL 000 NO 000 2

 Soltani and Soltani Foaming of pure aluminium by TiH 2

a 620uC; b 640uC; c 650uC; d 660uC

2 Macroscopic view of foamed aluminium under different foaming temperatures

increases.16–19,21 Sufficient foaming kinetics occurs, and centre of pure Al, though the remaining small pores of
hydrogen releasing is accelerated, which causes bubble ,3 mm are dispersed uniformly around them. The
coalescence very rapidly. The final bubble size and total recycled Al alloy foam has fine cell and shows uniform
porosity volume are directly related to hydrogen gas cell structures. This is because recycled Al alloy melt
content in the melt due to titanium hydride decomposi- possesses lower melting point and higher viscosity. High
tion and growth rate between bubble and liquid/solid decomposition rate of titanium hydride is not desired,
interface. Rapid solidification causes non-uniform irre- because the excess gas released from the melt leads to
gularly shaped porosity cell structure. production of unstable liquid foam. In another point of
The foaming tests are shown in Fig. 3. The specimen view, low holding temperature causes insufficient gas
heights increased to over eight times more for pure Al releasing required for foaming process. Finer porosity
than that of the original column height. The porosity cell structure and the presence of continuous aluminium
including skins of the foamed columns was evaluated solid phase are probably due to insufficient hydrogen
by Archimedes’ principle to be 0?92, 0?90 and 051 content in the melt. Therefore, the appropriate holding
respectively. A few larger pores of 4–5 mm exist at the temperature of the melt is in the range of 640–650uC.

a pure Al; b recycled Al

3 Photographs of pure Al and recycled Al foamed

Materials Research Innovations 2014 VOL 000 NO 000 3

 Soltani and Soltani Foaming of pure aluminium by TiH 2

a 0?5%; b 1?0%; c 1?5%; d 2?5%

4 Macroscopic view of foamed aluminium under different titanium hydride wt-% at 640uC foaming temperature

Figure 4 shows the influence of TiH2 addition on the porosity cell structure distribution. As it is shown in
porosity cell structure of the foamed aluminium samples. Fig. 4d, TiH2 addition of 2?5 wt-% induced non-uniform
A comparison of the cell structure indicates that TiH2 porosity cell structure but released hydrogen gas was
addition of 0?5 wt-% creates a bubble free zone at the completely absorbed by the melt and largely increased the
bottom of the sample.20–22 TiH2 addition not only affects foamed aluminium volume. However, the maximum
the hydrogen content and porosity volume but also extent of the volume is limited. Figure 5 shows the
determines the melt viscosity. The neighbouring bubbles relationship between the porosity of the foamed alumi-
in the liquid foam are separated by thin liquid film. nium and TiH2 content at the holding temperature of
By the presence of sufficient hydrogen content and 640uC.
desired melt viscosity, liquid surface tension minimises Insight into the process is provided by observations of
the flow of this thin liquid film in the mentioned an expanding foam in an open tube, 160 mm in diameter.
interface.23–27 It indicates that the TiH2 addition of During foam expansion, the top surface is convex, bowed
0?5 wt-% is insufficient. Non-uniform irregular porosity in the shape of an arc because of the decomposing
cell structure is shown in Fig. 4a. TiH2 addition of 1?0– blowing agent. Figure 6 shows a time sequence of the
1?5 wt-% induced a wide range uniformity of spherical surface of an expanding aluminium foam. To mark a
reference location on the surface, a stud was inserted at
the centre of the top surface, and the position of the stud
is marked by arrows in the figure. During expansion, the
stud moved ,40 mm from the centre to the side, over a
period of 100 s. This displacement was caused by the
emergence of fresh surface from beneath the top surface,
which pushed the extant surface to the side of the crucible
as the foam expanded. Meanwhile, the height of the
sample expanded from 160 to 190 mm. The new surface
area was created by expansion of surface cells and the
creation of new surface by migration of cells to the old
surface.28
The porosity of foamed aluminium with TiH2 addition
of 1?0 wt-% has been remarkably increased. Figure 7
shows SEM image of fractured surface of the foamed
5 Porosity percentage as function of titanium hydride aluminium with 1?5 wt-% of titanium hydride. As it
wt-% in foamed aluminium shows, medium thickness of thin cell wall is ,20 mm,

Materials Research Innovations 2014 VOL 000 NO 000 4

 Soltani and Soltani Foaming of pure aluminium by TiH 2

6 A series of views of the expanding surface of the foam sample

7 SEM fracture view of foamed aluminum with a 1?5 wt% of titanium hydride; b 1 wt% of titanium hydride9

which has been easily broken under loading and 3. With an increase in the stirring period, the number
eventually will be vanished. These thin cell walls are of pores is increased, but the size of pores is decreased.
caused by the excessive foaming. These experimental 4. At the holding temperature of 640uC, TiH2
results indicate that the optimum content of TiH2 and decomposes into titanium and hydrogen. The bubble
more hydrogen gas releasing increases the porosity size and porosity volume are directly related to
volume and foaming efficiency. As hydrogen gas releasing hydrogen gas content and growth rate between bubble
is increased, its escaping through the melt increases and and liquid/solid interface.
may result in decreased foaming efficiency. Therefore, the 5. Rapid solidification releases excess gas and causes
optimum amount of titanium hydride content is 1?0 non-uniform irregularly shaped porosity cell structure.
wt-%, which induces uniformity in porosity cell structure Insufficient hydrogen content causes finer porosity cell
distribution in the whole cross-section of the foamed structure and continuous aluminium solid phase,
aluminium. whereas the sufficient content and the desired melt
viscosity minimise the flow of thin liquid film between
the neighbouring bubbles in the liquid foam.
Conclusions
The effect of thermal decomposition properties of Acknowledgement
titanium hydride on the alloy melt foaming behaviour
and the pore structures of pure aluminium was investi- The authors acknowledge Islamic Azad University
gated using the unidirectional solidification method. The Masjed Soleyman Branch of Microcast for the experi-
main results obtained from this study could be sum- mental work and the skilful technical advice.
marised as follows.
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