The potential for applying metal foams in lightweight construction is mainly based on the increased stiffness of two flat or curved sheets that are separated by a foam layer as compared to a single sheet of the same weight. By using sandwiches with an aluminum‐foam core, it is possible to obtain a higher stiffness and rigidity, maintaining stability against buckling and additionally making use of the high energy dissipation capability of the foams. A recent highlight in lightweight construction is the use of aluminum‐foam sandwiches (AFSs) in space‐frame constructions.
Open-cell and closed-cell metal foams have been reinforced with different kinds of micro- and nano-sized reinforcements to enhance their mechanical properties of the metallic matrix. The idea behind this is that the reinforcement will strengthen the matrix of the cell edges and cell walls and provide high strength and stiffness. This manuscript provides an updated overview of the different manufacturing processes of composite and nanocomposite metal foams.
Multifunctional hybrid foams were developed and tested by combining aluminium alloy open-cell (OC) foam specimens with polymers, epoxy resin and silicone rubber. The rectangular OC foam specimens were impregnated with polymer, completely filling the voids. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the polymer presence in the voids of aluminium alloy OC foam specimens (varying their size, e.g. height to width ratio) on the crush performance of the resulting hybrid foams. Quasi-static and dynamic uniaxial compressive tests and infrared thermography were used to compare the behaviour of hybrid foams with conventional (unfilled) OC foam specimens. Results show an improvement of the compressive strength and energy absorption capacity of hybrid foams, especially when infiltrated with epoxy resin. The results show that the epoxy leads to higher capacity of specific energy absorption of the hybrid foams, while silicone leads to lower capacity of specific energy absorption in comparison to the OC foam specimens. The high energy absorption values of
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