A Comparative Investigation on Foamability and Structure of Al Foams Added with Precipitator and Cenosphere Fly Ash Particles

Abstract

Al foam is an advanced engineering material with many outstanding properties, such as very low density, high specific strength and stiffness, and large energy absorption. In the present study, pure Al foams were mixed with either cenosphere or precipitator fly ash particles of various contents. Fly ash particles are used in Al foams as reinforcement and stabilising materials which enable the foams with large expansion. It is found that Al foams with precipitator fly ash particles of various contents exhibited larger expansions than the foams with cenosphere fly ash particles. The quantitative analysis also revealed that more stable foam structure was obtained in Al foams with precipitator fly ash addition.

Developments of Metallic Foams in Thailand

“…Apart from expensive ceramic particles, waste products from agricultural industry, such as rice husk ash (RHA), or from power plant, such as fly ash (FA) and bottom ash (BA), showed high potential to be used as structural stabilizer in Al foams. The experimental results exhibited a significant improvement in Al foam structure when added with RHA particles [4]. The presence of RHA in cell walls strengthens the foam structure, as shown in Fig.…”

“…Figure 1 Rice husk ash particles embedded in a cell wall [4] The utilization of FA and BA particles were also found to show a significant improvement in foam expansion and stability [5][6][7]. The FA particles can be classified as cenosphere fly ash (CFA) and precipitator fly ash (PFA).…”