Elastic and electric properties of closed-cell aluminum foams: Cross-property connection

Foamed aluminum (AlMg1Si0.6) in the porosity range 0.45–0.85 produced by the powder metallurgy method is analyzed with regard to its elastic and electric properties. Various predictive models for the electrical conductivity and Young's modulus of closed-cell metal foam are assessed based on the experimental measurements. It is shown that the differential scheme provides the best predictions of the electrical conductivity in the porosity range 0.7–0.85, while Mori–Tanaka's scheme gives the best results for the Young's modulus. Comparing the two sets of the experimental data, cross-property coefficient that connects changes in the Young's modulus and electrical conductivity of a material due to pores was determined. A non-trivial finding is that the best prediction of the cross-property coefficient is obtained in the framework of non-interaction approximation.