Compressive behavior and damping property of ZA22/SiCp composite foams

The ZA22 alloy composite foams reinforced by 10 vol.% SiC particles (ZA22/SiCp composite foams) were fabricated with the melt foaming route using CaCO3 blowing agent in this paper. The compressive behavior and damping property of the composite foams were investigated. The results show that SiC particles dispersing in cell walls can alter the deformation mechanism of ZA22 foams. The plateau stress of the composite foams, therefore, fluctuated continually. The damping properties of ZA22/SiCp composite foams are obviously higher than those of ZA22 alloy and ZA22 foams. The addition of SiC particles can improve the damping capacity of ZA22 foams because SiC particles introduce multifarious interfaces and high-density dislocations in composite foams. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.