Molecular Dynamics Study of Gradient Energy Coefficient and Grain-Boundary Migration in Aluminum Foam

Aluminum foam is one of the widely known metallic foams that has recently attracted many researchers’ attention due to its unique combination of properties derived from its cellular structure. Previous studies have shown that the foaming process is responsible for the resulting microstructure, which in turn determines the properties of the metal foams and affects their applicability in industry. In order to facilitate the understanding of process-structure–property-performance relations of metal foams, a phase-field (PF) model predicting the microstructural evolution of these materials during the foaming process, must be developed. And to develop such a PF model, the gradient energy coefficient and grain boundary (GB) mobility of foaming materials must be obtained. In this paper, a series of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed on a system of aluminum and silicon (Al–Si) atoms in order to determine those parameters. The obtained results will be used to parametrize the PF model.