Diffuse Interface Models for Metal Foams

le interest because of their potential applications in many fields of the industry. To produce a metal foam, a well-established process is starting with a molten metal, then introducing blowing agents to create gas bubbles inside the metal. In this work we use COMSOL Multiphysics® and apply the diffuse interface methods of the phase field technique, in order to model the properties of metal foams and describe the movement of the gas-liquid interfaces. A metal foam represented by a number of bubbles moving in a laminar flow is modeled and simulated. Surface tension effects are considered and repulsive forces between neighboring bubbles are expressed through the disjoining pressure. The numerical results show that diffuse interface methods are effective to model this kind of complex phenomena and that fundamental mechanisms due to surface tension effects and