Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 288–292

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Effect of tool rotating rate on foaming properties of porous aluminum fabricated

by using friction stir processing
Yoshihiko Hangai a,∗ , Takao Utsunomiya b , Makoto Hasegawa c
a
Department of Mechanical System Engineering, Gunma University, Kiryuu 376-8515, Japan
b
Research Organization for Advanced Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Saitama 337-8570, Japan
c
Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A1050 porous aluminum is fabricated by the FSP route and the effect of the tool rotating rate on the
Received 31 July 2009 porosity and morphology of the pores is investigated. To fabricate high-porosity porous aluminum with
Received in revised form 8 September 2009 a uniform pore size distribution, a certain amount of stirring action is necessary; however, excessive
Accepted 10 September 2009
stirring action is ineffective. A sufficiently uniform mixture is realized by traversing the FSP tool two
times at a tool rotating rate exceeding 2200 rpm. The results indicate the minimum necessary amount of
stirring action and will provide a guideline for improving productivity. Also, to improve the morphology
PACS:
of pores, optimizing the amount of Al2 O3 is effective. Closed-cell porous aluminum with a porosity of
81.05.Rm
about 80% was successfully fabricated by 2-pass FSP at 2200 rpm with the addition of 7 mass% Al2 O3 , a
Keywords: holding temperature of 998 K and a holding time of 10 min.
Porous metals © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Friction stir processing
Aluminum alloy
Porosity
Foam

1. Introduction of expensive aluminum alloy powder for starting materials and

In the automotive industry, the improvement of both the fuel
efficiency for environmentally friendly automobiles and the col-
lision safety of passengers and pedestrians are indispensable.
Closed-cell porous aluminum is expected to be used in automo-
bile components such as bumpers (Banhart, 2001) and A-pillars
(Kretz et al., 2002), because closed-cell porous aluminum is a mul-
tifunctional material with both good lightweight properties and
high energy-absorption properties.
There are several processes for fabricating porous aluminum
and reviewed by Banhart (2001). The precursor method is one of
the major processes for fabricating closed-cell porous aluminum.
In the precursor method, a mixture of aluminum alloy and blow-
ing agent, called “precursor”, is first fabricated. Next, the precursor
is heat treated to decompose the blowing agent and to release
the gases that expand the aluminum alloy. There are several
routes for fabricating the precursor, such as the powder metallur-
gical route by Kunze et al. (1993) and the ARB process route by
Kitazono et al. (2004). In these processing routes, some factors pre-
vent their practical application (Banhart, 2001), such as the use
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 277 30 1554; fax: +81 277 30 1599.
E-mail address: hanhan@gunma-u.ac.jp (Y. Hangai).
the need for many time-consuming and complicated fabricating
processes.
Recently, Hangai and Utsunomiya (2009a) have developed the
new processing route for fabricating a precursor, in which friction
stir processing (FSP) is used. FSP (reviewed by Mishra and Ma, 2005;
Ma, 2008) is a solid-state process comprising the generation of
friction heat and an intense stirring action by inserting and travers-
ing a rotating tool with a probe and a shoulder through the base
metal. In the FSP route, the precursor is fabricated by mixing blow-
ing agent powder and stabilization agent powder into aluminum
plates using the significant stirring action of FSP. The FSP route
can introduce many advantages of FSP. First, FSP is a simple and
short-time process and can realize high productivity. Second, inex-
pensive rolled or extruded aluminum alloy plates, or aluminum
alloy die casting plates can be used for starting materials instead
of expensive aluminum alloy powder. Third, FSP can provide high
mixing ability. It has been shown that a uniform microstructure of
7075-T651 aluminum alloy (Mishra et al., 1999), Al–10%Ti–2%Cu
and Al–10%Ti–2%Ni aluminum alloys (Berbon et al., 2001), A319
and A356 cast aluminum alloys (Santella et al., 2005) and ADC12
die casting aluminum alloy (Kim et al., 2006) can be realized. Also,
Mishra et al. (2003) have developed the fabrication technique of
metal–matrix composites, into which various reinforcing parti-
cles are mixed to improve the mechanical properties of the alloys.

0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2009.09.012
 Y. Hangai et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 288–292
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the manufacturing process of a precursor by friction
stir processing. Procedure of multipass FSP is also illustrated. (a) The powders were
placed along the path of the FSP tool; (b) FSP was conducted; (c) 1st FSP; (d) 2nd
FSP; (e) 3rd FSP; (f) 4th FSP.
Fourth, FSP does not require inconvenient heating processes that
are time-consuming and consume much energy before processing.
In previous studies on the fabrication of porous aluminum using
FSP, A4045 porous aluminum (Hangai and Utsunomiya, 2009a)
and die casting aluminum alloy ADC12 porous aluminum (Hangai
et al., 2009) were successfully fabricated. However, the detailed
foaming conditions necessary to obtain high-porosity and high-
quality porous aluminum are still not clear. Also, Hangai and
Utsunomiya (2009b) attempted the fabrication of ADC12 porous
aluminum using gases intrinsically contained in aluminum alloy
die castings and without using a blowing agent powder. However,
high-porosity porous aluminum has not yet been obtained. It is
currently considered that a blowing agent powder is necessary to
obtain high-porosity porous aluminum.
In this study, A1050 porous aluminum is fabricated by the FSP
route and the effect of the tool rotating rate on the porosity and
morphology of the pores is investigated. The tool rotating rate is
one of the fundamental parameters of the FSP and it is expected
that the faster the tool rotating rate is, the greater the amount of
the blowing agent powder and stabilization agent powder that can
be mixed into the aluminum alloy plates. Stereoscopic microscopy
observation was also conducted to observe the distribution of blow-
ing agent powder and stabilization agent powder, and the effect of
the stirring action was investigated.
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. FSP procedure
Fig. 1 shows the schematic illustration of the FSP route used
in this study. A1050 commercial aluminum rolled plates of 3 mm
thickness, 80 mm width and 210 mm length were used without sur-
face treatment. Two aluminum plates were stacked with blowing
agent powder and stabilization agent powder distributed between
them. FSP was carried out using an FSW machine, SHH204-720
manufactured by Hitachi Setsubi Engineering Co., Ltd. (Hitachi,
289
Japan), as shown in Fig. 1(b)–(f). The FSP tool is a columnar shape
with a screw probe. The diameter of the tool shoulder is 17 mm.
The diameter of the tool probe is 6 mm and its length is 5 mm.
SKH51 high-speed tool steel was used as the tool material. The tool
traversing speed was a constant value of 100 mm/min throughout
the experiments. The tool rotating rate was varied from 1400 rpm
to 3000 rpm in steps of 400 rpm. The tilt angle of 3◦ was used.
Titanium(II) hydride (TiH2 , <45 ␮m) powder was used as the
blowing agent and alumina (␣-Al2 O3 , ∼1 ␮m) powder was used as
the stabilization agent. The stabilization agent was used to stabi-
lize the pore structure and to prevent the release of gases from
porous aluminum by improving the viscosity of aluminum dur-
ing the foaming process as Kennedy and Asavavisithchai (2004)
described. The powders were placed along the path of the FSP tool,
as shown in Fig. 1(a), in an area of 10 mm width and 150 mm length.
Their amounts were 1 mass% for TiH2 and 3 mass% for Al2 O3 cor-
responding to the mass of the 150 mm × 10 mm × 5 mm aluminum
(i.e., the distributed area of TiH2 and Al2 O3 , and the length of the
tool probe). The multipass FSP, which was attempted by Sato et
al. (2005) and Su et al. (2005), was applied to obtain a large size
of precursor by traversing different FSP regions and to thoroughly
mix TiH2 and Al2 O3 by traversing the same FSP region more than
once.
The procedure of multipass FSP applied in this study is as fol-
lows. First, as shown in Fig. 1(c), FSP is carried out on the right side
of the region where TiH2 and Al2 O3 were placed (1st FSP). Second,
as shown in Fig. 1(d), the FSP tool is shifted by approximately the
diameter of the tool probe in the direction perpendicular to the FSP
direction and FSP is carried out on the left side (retreating side) of
the 1st FSP to obtain a large size of precursor (2nd FSP). We call
these two processes (1st FSP and 2nd FSP) “1-pass FSP” hereinafter.
Third, as shown in Fig. 1(e), the traversing direction was reversed
and the next FSP was carried out in the region immediately above
the 2nd FSP (3rd FSP). Fourth, as shown in Fig. 1(f), the next FSP was
carried out in the region immediately above the 1st FSP (4th FSP).
By carrying out these processes from the 1st FSP to the 4th FSP, the
FSP region was stirred twice. We call these processes (from the 1st
FSP to the 4th FSP) “2-pass FSP” hereinafter. Fifth, 2-pass FSP was
carried out once more in the region immediately above the first 2-
pass FSP. This means that the FSP region was stirred four times. We
call these processes “4-pass FSP” hereinafter.
The maximum temperature of the surface of the aluminum
plates was about 600 K, obtained by measurement with a radiation
thermometer. This temperature is below the decomposition tem-
perature of the blowing agent. Also, it is considered that although
the microstructure of the precursor is modified by FSP, the melting
point is not significantly changed by the altered microstructure of
the precursor. Thus, it is assumed that the microstructure of the
precursor does not significantly affect the foaming properties in
this study.
2.2. Foaming procedure
The aluminum plates containing TiH2 and Al2 O3 were machined
to produce a precursor of 6 mm thickness, 12 mm width and 12 mm
length. These precursors were heat treated for foaming in a pre-
heated electric furnace. The holding temperature (equal to the
preheated temperature) was constant during the heating process
and the holding time was 10 min. Then the sample was cooled to
room temperature under ambient conditions. The holding tem-
perature was varied from 973 K to 1048 K in steps of 25 K. Two
precursor samples were foamed at each holding temperature.
The porosity p (pct) of the foamed aluminum, including the skin,
was calculated as p = (i − f )/i × 100, where i is the density of
the precursor before heating and f is the density of the foamed
aluminum. The densities were evaluated by Archimedes’ princi-
290 Y. Hangai et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 288–292
Fig. 2. Relationship between holding temperature and porosity for 1-pass, 2-pass and 4-pass FSP with tool rotating rate from 1400 rpm to 3000 rpm.
ple. Then the aluminum was cut and the morphology of pores was
observed.
2.3. Observation procedure of mixture of TiH2 and Al2 O3
Metallurgical inspection was carried out on the cross-section
of the FSP region. First, the aluminum plates containing TiH2 and
Al2 O3 were sectioned right after FSP. Next, these samples were
mounted in mounting resin and the surface was polished. Then,
stereoscopic microscopy images were taken using a CCD camera.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 2 shows the relationship between holding temperature and
porosity for 1-pass, 2-pass and 4-pass FSP samples at each tool
rotating rate. The porosity is the average value of the two foamed
aluminum samples. At the tool rotating rate of 1400 rpm, as shown
in Fig. 2(a), the 4-pass FSP sample indicates a higher porosity than
those of 1-pass and 2-pass FSP samples, because TiH2 and Al2 O3
were sufficiently and uniformly mixed into the aluminum plates.
As the tool rotating rate increases, the porosity of 1-pass and 2-pass
FSP samples increases, and the 2-pass FSP sample indicated almost
the same porosity as that of the 4-pass FSP sample after exceeding
2200 rpm.
Fig. 3. Relationship between tool rotating rate and porosity at holding temperature
of 998 K for 1-pass, 2-pass and 4-pass FSP.
The holding temperature of 998 K indicates the maximum
porosity of more than 70 pct for the 4-pass FSP samples for every
tool rotating rate. When the holding temperature was low, the
aluminum matrix was not sufficiently softened for the pores to
grow and expand the aluminum matrix. When the holding tem-
perature was high, though sufficient expansion of the aluminum
matrix occurred, the generated pores coalesced into large pores
that rose to the surface, and then the gases were released, thus
slightly reducing the porosity.
Fig. 3 shows the relationship between the tool rotating rate and
porosity p (pct) at the holding temperature of 998 K for 1-pass,
2-pass and 4-pass FSP samples. For the 1-pass FSP sample, poros-
ity is low due to the low stirring action, however porosity began
to increase after exceeding 2600 rpm. For the 2-pass FSP sample,
porosity gradually increases as the tool rotating rate increases from
1400 rpm to 2200 rpm and indicates approximately the same ten-
dency as the 4-pass FSP sample after exceeding 2200 rpm owing
to the high stirring action. From these results, it is considered that
a sufficient and uniform mixture was realized to produce porous
aluminum by traversing the FSP tool two times at a tool rotating
rate exceeding 2200 rpm in this FSP.
The porosities of the 1-pass FSP sample at 3000 rpm and the
2-pass FSP sample at 1400 rpm are almost the same value. It is con-
Fig. 4. Relationship between amount of stirring action and porosity at holding tem-
perature of 998 K. The amount of stirring action ϕ was defined as the tool rotating
rate multiplied by number of passes.
 Y. Hangai et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 288–292
Fig. 5. Morphology of the pores of porous aluminum fabricated at a holding tem-
perature of 998 K for a 10-min holding time, and cross-section of the FSP region
perpendicular to the FSP direction corresponding to the pore structure: (a) 1-pass
FSP at tool rotating rate of 1400 rpm, p = 8.8 pct; (b) cross-section of FSP region before
foaming process of (a); (c) 1-pass FSP at tool rotating rate of 3000 rpm, p = 55.2 pct;
(d) cross-section of FSP region before foaming process of (c); (e) 2-pass FSP at tool
rotating rate of 1400 rpm, p = 53.6 pct; (f) cross-section of FSP region before foaming
process of (e); (g) 2-pass FSP at tool rotating rate of 2200 rpm, p = 72.9 pct; (h) cross-
section of FSP region before foaming process of (g); (i) 4-pass FSP at tool rotating rate
of 1400 rpm, p = 73.4 pct; (j) cross-section of FSP region before foaming process of
(i); (k) 4-pass FSP at tool rotating rate of 3000 rpm, p = 70.7 pct, and (l) cross-section
of FSP region before foaming process of (k).
sidered that the stirring action is almost the same for one traversal
of the tool at 3000 rpm and two traversals of the tool at 1400 rpm.
Also, the porosities of the 2-pass FSP sample at more than 2200 rpm
and the 4-pass FSP sample at any tool rotating rate are almost the
same value. Fig. 4 shows the relationship between the amount
of stirring action ϕ and porosity p (pct) at the holding temper-
ature of 998 K. The amount of stirring action ϕ is defined as the
tool rotating rate multiplied by the number of passes. The porosity
291
Fig. 6. TiH2 particle distribution in the FSP region of 2-pass FSP at 2200 rpm,
observed using stereoscopic microscope. Black particles indicate TiH2 particles: (a)
magnification of area A of Fig. 5(h) and (b) magnification of area B of Fig. 5(h).
increased as the amount of stirring action increased until ϕ = 4400
(2200 rpm × 2-pass FSP), and it is considered that this tendency is
independent of the number of passes. Thus, the porosity of porous
aluminum is only affected by the amount of stirring action. After
exceeding ϕ = 4400, the porosity became approximately constant.
These results indicate that a certain amount of stirring action is nec-
essary to fabricate high-porosity porous aluminum, but that further
stirring action is ineffective in increasing the porosity.
Fig. 5 shows the morphology of pores fabricated at a holding
temperature of 998 K and the cross-section of the FSP region per-
pendicular to the FSP direction right after the FSP corresponding
to the morphology of pores. In the cross-sections of the FSP region,
black parts of the surrounding area are the mounting resin. Gray
parts indicate the aluminum matrix and white parts indicate Al2 O3 .
The left side of the aluminum matrix region represents the next-
to-last FSP and the right side represents the last FSP. As shown in
Fig. 5(a), after 1-pass FSP at a tool rotating rate of 1400 rpm, few
pores and crack-like cavities were observed. As shown in Fig. 5(b),
bonding of the two aluminum plates was insufficient, and an inter-
face between the two aluminum plates, where TiH2 and Al2 O3 were
distributed, was observed. Al2 O3 exists only in the interface and it
was not dispersed into the aluminum matrix. After 1-pass FSP at
the tool rotating rate of 3000 rpm, as shown in Fig. 5(c), and 2-
pass FSP at the tool rotating rate of 1400 rpm, as shown in Fig. 5(e),
some pores were observed but they were not uniformly distributed
and the size of the pores was not uniform. This is because TiH2
and Al2 O3 were not distributed throughout the FSP region owing
to the insufficient amount of stirring action, as shown in Fig. 5(d)
and (f). After 2-pass FSP at the tool rotating rate of 2200 rpm, as
shown in Fig. 5(g), 4-pass FSP at the tool rotating rate of 1400 rpm,
as shown in Fig. 5(i), and 4-pass FSP at the tool rotating rate of
3000 rpm, as shown in Fig. 5(k), almost the same high porosity was
obtained, and the pores were spread throughout almost all regions
of porous aluminum. As shown in Fig. 5(h), (j) and (l), the disper-
sion of Al2 O3 was not the same, and as the amount of stirring action
increased, the dispersion of Al2 O3 became uniform. However, it is
considered that the mixture of Al2 O3 was sufficient to fabricate
high-porosity porous aluminum after 2-pass FSP at the tool rotat-
ing rate of 2200 rpm. Fig. 6 shows the TiH2 particle distribution in
292 Y. Hangai et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 288–292
Fig. 7. Morphology of pores of porous aluminum produced by 2-pass FSP at
2200 rpm with holding temperature of 998 K, holding time of 10 min and 7 pct Al2 O3
addition; p = 79.3 pct.
the region of 2-pass FSP at 2200 rpm, observed using a stereoscopic
microscope. Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows the observation areas of A and
B indicated in Fig. 5(h). Black particles indicate the TiH2 particles.
Although the numbers of TiH2 particles differed to some extent,
TiH2 particles were uniformly dispersed throughout the aluminum
matrix. The results shown in Figs. 4–6 indicated that it is not neces-
sary to mix TiH2 and Al2 O3 above a certain amount of stirring action
to achieve high porosity and uniform pore distribution in porous
aluminum. The results indicate the minimum necessary amount of
stirring action and provide a guideline for improving productivity.
The morphology of pores strongly affects the mechanical prop-
erties of the porous aluminum. However, the size of the pores
obtained in this study, as shown in Figs. 5(g), (i) and (k), was large
and nonuniform. To improve the pore structure, one technique
being considered is to increase the amount of Al2 O3 addition. Fig. 7
shows the morphology of pores in the case of 7 pct Al2 O3 addition
with the other conditions being the same as in the case of Fig. 5(g).
It is clear that pore size became considerably more uniform and
smaller than with 3 pct Al2 O3 addition, as shown in Fig. 5(g). Also, an
improvement in the pore structure may be realized by optimizing
foaming conditions, such as holding temperature and holding time.
Clearly, further studies are necessary to obtain a higher quality of
porous aluminum.
4. Conclusions
The effect of the tool rotating rate on the porosity and pore
structure of A1050 porous aluminum fabricating by the FSP route
precursor method was investigated. The experimental results led
to the following conclusions:
(1) The porosity of porous aluminum is only affected by the amount
of stirring action (tool rotating rate × number of FSP times).
(2) To fabricate high-porosity porous aluminum with uniform pore
size distribution, a certain amount of stirring action is neces-
sary. However, any further stirring action is ineffective. It is
considered that a sufficient and uniform mixture of TiH2 and
Al2 O3 was realized by traversing the FSP tool two times at a
tool rotating rate exceeding 2200 rpm.
(3) Adopting the holding temperature of 998 K for a holding time
of 10 min results in the maximum porosity of more than 70 pct
under the FSP conditions at which a sufficient and uniform mix-
ture is obtained, as indicated above.
(4) To improve the morphology of pores, optimizing the amount of
Al2 O3 is effective.
It is expected that the results will indicate the minimum neces-
sary amount of stirring action and provide a guideline for improving
productivity.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by Industrial Technology
Research Grant Program in 2009 from New Energy and Indus-
trial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan. The
authors thank one-time Professor T. Yokota, Shibaura Institute of
Technology, and Professor K. Saito, Gunma University, for their
helpful advice on conducting the experiments, and Professor H.
Kumehara, Gunma University, for fruitful discussions throughout
this study.
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