Usans investigation of early stages of metal foam formation

Metallic foams are on the verge of being used in industrial applications. However, the mechanism of foam creation, especially the early stages, are still unexplored. Ultra small-angle neutron scattering (USANS), performed with the double-crystal diffractometer (DCD) at the Geesthacht Neutron Facility (GeNF), is a promising method for obtaining a three-dimensional average of a pore size distribution in a wide size range from about 100 nm to about 20 mum. Analysis of the neutron scattering curves yielded pore size distributions which conformed with the results obtained by microscopy.