Fabrication, Structural Characterization and Uniaxial Tensile Properties of Novel Sintered Multi-Layer Wire Mesh Porous Plates

There is an increasing interest in developing porous metals or metallic foams for functional and structural applications. The study of the physical and mechanical properties of porous metals is very important and helpful for their application. In this paper, a novel sintered multilayer wire mesh porous plate material (WMPPs) with a thickness of 0.5 mm–3 mm and a porosity of 10–35% was prepared by winding, pressing, rolling, and subsequently vacuum sintering them. The pore size and total size distribution in the as-prepared samples were investigated using the bubble point method. The uniaxial tensile behavior of the WMPPs was investigated in terms of the sintering temperature, porosity, wire diameter, and manufacturing technology. The deformation process and the failure mechanism under the tensile press was also discussed based on the appearance of the fractures (SEM figures). The results indicated that the pore size and total size distribution were closely related to the raw material used and the sintering temperature. For the WMPPs prepared by the wire mesh, the pore structures were inerratic and the vast majority of pore size was less than 10 μm. On the other hand, for the WMPPs that were prepared by wire mesh and powder, the pore structures were irregular and the pore size ranged from 0 μm–50 μm. The experimental data showed that the tensile strength of WMPPs is much higher than any other porous metals or metallic foams. Higher sintering temperatures led to coarser joints between wires and resulted in higher tensile strength. The sintering temperature decreased from 1330 °C to 1130 °C and the tensile strength decreased from 296 MPa to 164 MPa. Lower porosity means that there are more metallurgical joints and metallic frameworks resisting deformation per unit volume. Therefore, lower porosities exhibit higher tensile strength. An increase of porosity from 17.14% to 32.5% led to the decrease of the tensile strength by 90 MPa. The coarser wires led to a bigger contact area between the interconnecting wires, resulting in a stronger sintering neck that exhibited higher tensile strength. The wire diameter increased from 81 μm to 122 μm and the tensile strength increased from 296 MPa to 362 MPa. The fracture morphology showed that the wires experience necking deformation and ductile fracture.