ExperimentalAluminum foams with different relative density were fabricated by liquidstate foaming. The samples were cut into 25 mm cubes. Compression tests were performed with a constant loading rate (3.0 mm/min) using a computercontrolled load frame. The loading direction was parallel to the foam rise direction. The relationship between apparent stress and apparent strain of the foam sample was obtained.High-porosity permeable cellular metals and alloys (HPPCM) of 80±97 % porosity have a variety of applications due to their uniformity and cohesion and their unsurpassed permeability of their spatial structure. At the same time, they are still little-known for a wide range of potential consumers.Traditional production methods of high-porosity permeable metal structures by sintering the metal powders with volatile cellulating agents, grids, or fibers [1,2] enable a porosity from 40 to 85 %. The main shortcoming of traditional methods is that they do not provide a high uniformity of spatial elements of pore structure and matrix skeleton. Meanwhile, since the 1950s, a practically ideal porous organic structure of foamed polyurethane (FPU) [3,4] has been commercially produced. Elastic FPU without membranes represents a threedimensional cellular grid. It is worth noting that its porosity is 97 to 98 %. The main structural element of foamed polyurethane is a cell having a shape of elongated pentagonal rotation ellipsoid (Fig. 1). A skeleton of cells is formed with trihedral bridges which converge in nodes of four. Each cell is surrounded with twelve neighbours on the average and has 12 edges. If a particular cell has a size more than the average size, then, correspondingly, more than twelve neighbours surround it.And when it is less than the average size, it has, correspondingly, less than twelve neighbours and edges. ªWindowsº, confined mainly by five bridges, between the adjacent cells are 0.45 to 0.60 of cell average diameter. [5] FPU is produced with the average cell diameters adjustable from 0.5 to 5.0 mm.HPPCM Producing Methods: Idea to use almost an ideal structure of meshy-cellular FPU as a basis for producing the high-porosity permeable cellular materials (HPPCM): metals, alloys, ceramics started to become a reality since the second half of twentieth century. [5±7] Now there are several essentially different HPPCM producing methods based on FPU: casting, suspension (slurry), chemical, galvanic, gas-phase, their combination.The casting method includes preliminary thickening the meshy-cellular FPU bridges, for example, by impregnation with paraffin, to obtain 96±85 % residual porosity, then the cells in a sealed tank are filled with a heat-resistant powder mix, and, the organic components are removed by heating, after that, the COMMUNICATIONS ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2005, 7, No. 1±2
