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A. Boschetto et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 26 (2013) 1-1 1; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.25.01 10 C ONCLUSIONS n this work replicated AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy foams are produced by infiltrating preforms of NaCl particles, varying the metal infiltration pressure and the mould temperature. An original procedure based on image analysis has been set up to determine size, morphology and distribution of cells. The results highlighted that when the mould is preheated at 500 ° C there is an excessive chill and the liquid metal does not develop a smooth skin through intimate contact with the mould surface. When the mould is preheated at 550 ° C the void density decreases by increasing the applied pressure. Moreover an increased infiltration pressure enhances metal infiltration through the salt pattern. In these conditions the void density distribution is more regular and there is a more effective replication of salt particles with a consequent reduced void circularity. This confirms the assumption that higher infiltration pressure coupled with higher mould preheating temperature optimises metal infiltration. The proposed procedure used to analyse the foam sections appears an effective way to analyse the effect of process parameters on foam morphology. R EFERENCES [1] Ashby, M.F., Evans, A.G., Fleck, N.A., Gibson, L.J., Hutchinson, J.W., Wadley, H.N.G., Metal Foams: A Design Guide, Edited by Butterworth-Heinemann, USA (2000). [2] Degischer, H.P., Kriszt B., Handbook of Cellular Metals: Production, Processing, Applications, Edited by H.P. Degischer, and B. Kriszt, Austria (2003). [3] Polonsky, L., Lipson, S., Markus, H., Light weight cellular metal, Mod. Cast., 39 (1961) 57-71. [4] Al-Jibbouri, S., Ulrich, J., The influence of impurities on crystallization kinetics of sodium chloride, Cryst. Res. Technol., 36 (2001) 1365-1375. [5] Adair, J.H., Suvaci, E., Morphological control of particles, Curr. Opin. Colloid In., 5 (2000 ) 160-167. [6] Gaillard, C., Despois, J.F., Mortensen, A., Processing of NaCI powders of controlled size and shape for the microstructural tailoring of aluminium foams, Mat. Sci. Eng. A-Struct., 374 (2004) 250-262. [7] Jiang, B., Zhao, N.Q., Shi, C.S., Li, J.J., Processing of open cell aluminum foams with tailored porous morphology, Scripta Mater., 53 (2005) 781-783. [8] Goodall, R., Marmottant, A., Salvo, L., Mortensen, A., Spherical pore replicated microcellular aluminium: Processing and influence on properties, Mat. Sci. Eng. A-Struct., 465 (2007) 124-135. [9] Goodall, R., Despois, J.F., Marmottant , A., Salvo, L., Mortensen, A., The effect of preform processing on replicated aluminium foam structure and mechanical properties, Scripta Mater., 54 (2006) 2069-2073. [10] Despois, J.F., Marmottant, A., Salvo, L., Mortensen, A., Influence of the infiltration pressure on the structure and properties of replicated aluminium foams, Mat. Sci. Eng. A-Struct., 462 (2007) 68-75. [11] Kádár, C., Chmelĺk, F., Cieslar, M., Lendvai , J., Acoustic emission of salt-replicated foams during compression, Scripta Mater., 59 (2008) 987-990. [12] Quadrini, F., Boschetto, A., Rovatti, L., Santo, L., Replication casting of open-cell AlSi7Mg0.3 foams, Mater. Lett., 65 (2011) 2558-2561. [13] Boschetto, A., Costanza, G., Quadrini, F., Tata, M. E., Cooling rate inference in aluminum alloy squeeze casting, Mater. Lett., 61 (2007) 2969-2972. [14] Boschetto, A., Campana, F., Giordano, V., Pilone, D., Morphological characterisation of cellular materials by image analysis, In: P. Di Giamberardino, D. Iacoviello, M. João (Eds), Computational Modelling of Objects Represented in Images III: Fundamentals, Methods and Applications, Italy (2012) 391-396. [15] Banhart, J., Manufacture, characterisation and application of cellular metals and metal foams, Prog. Mater. Sci. 46 (2001) 559-632. [16] Baumeister, J., Banhart, J., Weber, M., Aluminium foams for transport industry , Mater. Design, 18 (1997) 217-220. [17] Vaidya, U.K., Pillay, S., Bartus, S., Ulven, C.A., Growc, D.T., Mathewc, B., Impact and post-impact vibration response of protective metal foam composite sandwich plates, Mat. Sci. Eng. A-Struct., 428 (2006) 59-66. [18] Campana, F., Pilone, D., Effect of wall microstructure and morphometric parameters on the crush behaviour of Al alloy foams, Mat. Sci. Eng. A-Struct., 479 (2008) 58-64. [19] Russ, J.C., The Image Processing Handbook, 5th ed., CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, USA (2006). I