Metal foams are interesting materials for manufacturing energy absorbers and bending working panels. So far, aluminium has almost been the only metal to be employed: its weak density and fairly high mechanical performances have made of it the perfect candidate to make stiff and light structures able to absorb huge quantities of energy. This thesis deals with the opportunity to use steel in metal foam production. The aim was to take advantage of the low cost and/or of the high mechanical performances of this metal to compete with aluminium in metal foam manufacture. To produce steel foams, two kinds of processes have been tested during this thesis: liquid metal foaming and preform infiltration. The first consists in making liquid foam which solidifies after. In this goal, we worked on gas introduction in the metal and on the conditions of stability of the foam. The former consists in casting metal into a porous network of which the shape is that of foam. For this process, we developed a new technique for making preforms. We also studied parameters which could affect its possibilities as for parts size. At last, performances of steel foams which were manufactured by infiltration process were evaluated through compression tests, in order to compare them with aluminium foams. A first numerical modelling work was done as well to appreciate its relevancy in predicting the behaviour of this material.
