Damping and sound absorption properties of particle reinforced Al matrix composite foams

In this paper, the damping and sound absorption properties of A356/xSiCp composite foams have been studied (x expresses SiC vol.%). The results show that the loss factor β of A356/SiCp foams changes slightly with the increasing of temperature and frequency within the measured range. But there is some significant density dependence that the lower density foams have a higher β than the denser foams. When the cell structure is decided, the sound absorption factor αn is insensitive to the processes and increases with the raising SiC particle volume percent. A356/SiC foams have better damping and sound absorption properties than Al foams due to the existence of a large number of SiCp particles and a great amount of Al/SiCp interface in the composite foams which are beneficial to the absorption of the vibration energy.