Fabrication and tensile property of sandwich panel with ADC12 foam core by friction stir processing route

An aluminum foam sandwich, which consists of an aluminum foam core and two dense metallic face sheets, is a lightweight structural component with good energy and vibration absorption properties. In this study, using aluminum alloy die casting ADC12 plates containing large amount of gases, sandwich panels with metallurgical bonding between ADC12 aluminum foam core and dense aluminum sheets, of which the thickness was 3 mm and 1 mm, were fabricated by friction stir processing route. Through the observations of the dense sheets and the pore structure of aluminum foam core, the foaming condition for obtaining high porosity and good pore structure, and keeping a dense aluminum plate as surface plate simultaneously was discussed. Moreover, tensile tests were carried out on the fabricated aluminum foam sandwiches and it was shown that the bonding strength of interface is higher than the tensile strength of aluminum foam core.