Bending of sandwich-type precursor fabricated using friction stir welding route and pore structures evaluation of aluminum foam core after foaming

Aluminum foam has the high-energy-absorption property together with its superior lightweight. However, the tensile strength and bending strength of aluminum foam is lower than those of dense aluminum materials. It is promised that a sandwich structure consisting of an aluminum foam core and dense metallic face sheets is used as a structural component. In this study, at first, we fabricated sandwich-type foamable precursors of ADC12 aluminum alloy with two A1050 aluminum face sheets using the friction stir welding route. Next, 3-point bending tests of sandwich-type foamable precursors were carried out and sandwich-type foamable precursors with curvature were fabricated. After that, it was shown that, by foaming these precursors, aluminum foam core sandwiches with the aluminum foam core of good pore structures and almost same curvature as those of sandwich-type foamable precursors were successfully fabricated.