Manuel F Azamar
IIM-UNAM, Mexico
Title: Permeability behavior of aluminum foams and its correlation with mechanical properties and structural parameters
Biography
Biography: Manuel F Azamar
Abstract
Metallic foam is a porous media that combines physical and mechanical properties, such as a low specific weight with high compression strength. Since pores are interconnected, foams have the capacity to conduct fluids, reason why represent an option in engineering. The objective of this research is to investigate the permeability behavior of aluminum foams with different pore sizes simulating pressure and temperature conditions of reservoir, with the aim of evaluating its performance as an alternative for oil and gas industry. The methodology followed consisted in the preparation of aluminum (Al) foam samples with different pore sizes. This was carried out by means of infiltrating an open pore bed of bonded sodium chloride (NaCl) particles with molten Al, and then leaching the NaCl in distilled water. The wall thickness among the pores was measured and porosity percentage was calculated using a helium pycnometer. The compressive behavior of the foams was determined using an instron universal testing system, for obtaining young's modulus and compression strength. Finally, with the Darcy's law, the permeability coefficient of the samples was calculated by oil flux with high pressures intervals at room temperature, 100ºC and 200ºC. The importance of this project is that metallic foams for the energy industry have never been investigated nor proposed, thus the results presented in this research give way to a new engineering application of this materials.