Optimization of the Performance of Porous Low-Carbon Steels by Means of an Evolution Strategy

Possibilities for manufacturing cellular metallic materials are reviewed. However, this study primarily concerns the role of a cell-wall structure in influencing the mechanical behavior of metallic foams. A porous low-carbon steel with a controlled porous structure is processed from spark plasma sintering of ferromagnetic metal segments with a special, elongated shape. The ferromagnetic metal segments are filled into a die-block and their orientation is settled by a static magnetic field. The cell-wall structures of the porous low-carbon steel can be modified in order to improve its performance because differences in the cell-wall structure substantially affect the mechanisms of deformation and failure under different types of loading. The optimal shape of the structure following the required macroscopic mechanical response is established by means of the search scheme of an evolution strategy.