In this paper, the internal microstructure deformation of open-cell and closed-cell aluminum foams under compression was investigated by using synchrotron radiation X-ray computed tomography (SR-CT) technique and digital image analysis method. The reconstructed images were obtained by using filtered back projection algorithm based on the original images taken from SR-CT experiments. Several important parameters including cross-section porosity, total porosity and cross-section deformation were computed from the reconstructed images. The variation of these parameters provided useful evolution information of internal microstructure of aluminum foams under compression. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.