Aluminum foam stabilization by solid particles

A room temperature water model and a high temperature molten aluminum system were designed and constructed to investigate the effect of solid particles on the stabilization of foams. The average foam life was used to evaluate the stability of the foam. The effects of particle size, wetability, and concentration of the SiO2 particles were investigated at various gas flow rates in the room temperature system. The results indicated that only SiO2 particles with suitable wetability can stabilize liquid foam. The foam stability increases with decreasing particle size and increasing particle concentration. The effects of melt temperature and SiC particle concentration on aluminum foam stabilization were investigated in the high temperature system. It was found that a critical concentration of SiC particles was necessary for foaming to occur. The foam height increased with increasing concentration of SiC particles. The stability of the foam decreases with increasing temperature. (C) 1999 Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.