Al-based foams have drawn increasing attention from industry due to their integration of structure and functional properties. However, large-sized Al-based foams still cannot be homogeneously strengthened by long-time aging due to their low thermal conductivity. In this study, we proposed an age-hardening approach that was applied in large-sized Al-0.16Sc-0.17Zr (wt.%) foams via micro-alloying with Zr and Ti compared with Al-0.21Sc foams; it not only achieved homogeneous strength by long-term aging but also reduced the cost of the alloy by substituting Zr and Ti for the more expensive Sc content. The results show that the Al3(Sc, Zr, Ti) phase with a core-shell structure as a crucial precipitation strengthening phase by micro-alloying with Zr and Ti was less prone to coarsening after a prolonged aging heat treatment. Therefore, the yielding strength of Al-Sc foam micro-alloying with Zr and Ti remained almost unchanged after a maximum aging time of 1440 h due to less coarsening precipitate, which is consistent with the results of mechanical experiments. These findings provide a new way for the heat treatment strengthening of large-sized Al-based foams, thus promoting their industrial applications.
Keywords: Al-Sc foams; age-hardening; large size; micro-alloying; precipitates.