Fabrication and study of porous metals with a highly regular structure

A new approach based on the combination of electric resistance welding and electrodeposition is presented for manufacturing metallic porous materials with highly regular open-pore geometry. The method involves three steps, including stereoscopic gridding for controlling the size and shape of the material structure. The structure and strength of the nickel grid samples prepared by this method are in line with those expected. Comparison of the mechanical properties of the regular three-dimensional nickel grid and nickel foam revealed better compressive strength and lower discrete coefficient in the former. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of porous materials with the aforesaid structure can be easily analyzed using ANSYS Workbench; the results of finite element method (FEM) analysis are in good agreement with the test results, indicating that the ANSYS approach is a reliable and efficient means of analyzing such materials with a regular pore structure.

► A novel approach is presented for manufacturing metallic highly regular porous materials.
► These porous metals have better compressive strength and easier process than coequal foam metals.
► The FEM results highly agrees with the test data and can facilitate the materials' structure design.