Effect of Pore Size on Mechanical Properties of Ti-6Al-4V Metal Foams

Bulk Ti-6Al-4V is used for biomedical applications, such as prosthetic hip and knee joints due to some momentous characteristics, i.e., excellent strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance and moderate Young’s modulus. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of varying pore size on the mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V metallic foam. NaCl was used in order to introduce porosity within the matrix. Final sintered products had porosity in the range of 62 % to 74 %. Compressive strength and Young’s modulus of sintered pellets were found to be in the range of 23 MPa to 3 MPa and 2 GPa to 0.84 GPa, respectively. In this research fabricated metal foams have comparable mechanical properties to that of cancellous bones.