The Processing and Structure of Steel Matrix Syntactic Foams Prepared by Infiltration Casting

Metal matrix syntactic foams are consisting of metal matrix and hollow spheres in closely or randomly packed, which own multifunctional properties with lightweight, damping, heat insulation, energy absorption and have a vast application prospect. Steel matrix can extend the potential of syntactic foams as a materials class to several new fields of application. In this paper, the hollow alumina spheres were introduced into the steel matrix by infiltration casting, the minimum diameter of hollow spheres for infiltration is analyzed in theory, the steel matrix syntactic foams were successfully prepared, which contain two different sphere types with average diameter sizes 3.97mm and 4.72mm, and the average densities of syntactic foams were calculated to be 4.39 (spheres occupy 43.7% of the volume) and 3.74 g/cm3 (spheres occupy 52.1% of the volume), respectively. The microstructure characteristics of the steel matrix syntactic foam were analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy and energy spectrum.