A study of Mg and Cu additions on the foaming behaviour of Al-Si alloys

Aluminium casting alloys containing Mg and Cu in addition to Si were investigated with respect to their potential to be foamed. The kinetics of foam expansion of different alloys was studied and the resulting structures were characterised. Of the stages of evolution of foams, namely (i) pore nucleation, (ii) foam growth in the semisolid state, (iii) further expansion in the fully liquid state, the latter two were explored. Expansion in the semisolid state could be related to the available liquid fraction. Mg-containing Al-Si alloys yielded a less coarse and more uniform pore structure than the other alloys investigated. However, achieving a high volume expansion required restriction to a narrow process window and led to the suggestion of AlMg4Si8 as a practical alloy.