PREPARATION PROCESS OF ALUMINUM FOAM REINFORCED BY CARBON FIBERS

This article shows the fabrication process of aluminum foam reinforced by carbon fibers, and effects of mass percentage and length of carbon fiber on aluminum foam structure and properties in detail. The results show that aluminum foam with uniform structure can be prepared by using copper-coated carbon fibers as the stabilizer, and the apparent density of aluminum foam gradually decreases along with increasing the copper-coated carbon fiber content. The apparent density and porosity aren't regularly influenced by carbon fiber length. The compression performance results indicate that the quantity of carbon fiber has a remarkable influence on plateau stress and width of aluminum foam. The plateau stress obviously increases with increasing addition of carbon fibers. The compressive strength of aluminum foam reinforced by carbon fiber is generally more than 5MPa, which is much higher than that of ordinary aluminum foam.