Metallic foams are materials of which the research is still on-going, with the broad applicability in many different areas (e.g. automotive

industry, building industry, medicine, etc.). These metallic materials have specific properties, such as large rigidity at low density, high

thermal conductivity, capability to absorb energy, etc. The work is focused on the preparation of these materials using conventional casting

technology (infiltration method), which ensures rapid and economically feasible method for production of shaped components. In the

experimental part we studied conditions of casting of metallic foams with open pores and irregular cell structure made of ferrous and nonferrous

alloys by use of various types of filler material (precursors).

The method of determining the accuracy of polymer molds in plaster forms has been discussed. Distortion of the surface of molds and

plaster molds has been assessed. It has been found that the presence of monolithic and porous structure in the samples does not change the

accuracy of the surfaces when forms are prepared for removing the material of the model. It has been found that in case of full-mold

casting it is more expedient to form the mold cavity with cellular adjustable structures of molding prototypes.

The subject of the study are alumina foams produced by gelcasting method. The results of micro-computed tomography of the foam samples are used to create the numerical model reconstructing the real structure of the foam skeleton as well as the simplified periodic open-cell structure models. The aim of the paper is to present a new idea of the energy-based assessment of failure strength under uniaxial compression of real alumina foams of various porosity with use of the periodic structure model of the same porosity. Considering two kinds of cellular structures: the periodic one, for instance of fcc type, and the random structure of real alumina foam it is possible to justify the hypothesis, computationally and experimentally, that the same elastic energy density cumulated in the both structures of the same porosity allows to determine the close values of fracture strength under compression. Application of finite element computations for the analysis of deformation and failure processes in real ceramic foams is time consuming. Therefore, the use of simplified periodic cell structure models for the assessment of elastic moduli and failure strength appears very attractive from the point of view of practical applications.