Compressive Response Determination of Closed-Cell Aluminium Foam and Linear-Elastic Finite Element Simulation of μCT-Based Directly Reconstructed Geometrical Models

Abstract

Metal foams have a lightweight cellular structure with excellent mechanical and physical properties. It is well known that metal foams have high compression strength combined with good energy absorption characteristics [1]. Therefore, the interest in these materials is widespread not only as a vibration damper or sound absorber but also as a load-bearing structural element. Numerous applications rely on the compressive property of metal foams, which directly depend on its structure. As a load-bearing structural element (e.g. vehicle part, biomedical implant) metal foam is expected to behave elastically under working circumstances, so the material response must be predicted precisely in the elastic region. Numerical determination of compressive properties of foam structure remains a demanding engineering task, and it is indispensable for design purposes.A number of studies have reported on measuring the material response of different types of metal foams in destructive ways. Geometrical modelling is an essential part of the procedure aiming the investigation of metal foam structures in a numerical way. Numerous approaches can be found in the literature for the proper description of foam structures, one of which is the usage of uniform cell models which results in simplified geometry compared with the actual structure. A combination of spherical and cruciform-shaped cells was used to model closed-cell aluminium foam and to simulate its material response in [11], while different uniform cell structures were applied to the model and simulate open cell metal foams in [12] to [14]. Diamond and cubic cell foam structure were also used to simulate the effect of cell shape on the mechanical behaviour of open cell metal foams in [15].Since the inner structure of different types of metal foams is quite complicated, a surface analysis can result in imperfect or false data. Recent studies proved X-ray computed tomography to be an efficient and powerful tool for mapping the complete structure • Calculations based on geometrical model precisely described the compressive response in the elastic region. Compressive Response Determination of Closed-Cell Aluminium Foam and Linear-Elastic Finite Element Simulation of µCT-Based Directly Reconstructed Geometrical Models

Compressive characteristics of bimodal aluminium matrix syntactic foams

“…The macrostructure of the bimodal MMSFs has been studied by X-ray CT to reveal the arrangement of the CHSs and to gather information about the distribution of the individual CHSs [58][59][60][61]. Images (c-e) were taken in the middle planes.…”

The Influence of Machining Parameters on the Surface Porosity of a Closed-Cell Aluminium Foam

“…Improvements in production processes made commercial use of aluminium foams much wider [5]. Today, for design purposes numerical simulations of aluminium foams are applied [6]. With further development of additive or other cost effective manufacturing techniques, cellular materials show huge potential to become important light-weight structural materials of the future [7].…”

Metal Foam Analysis Based on CT Layers

“…the properties of the solid phase, the relative density of the solid phase and the spatial arrangement of the cells, that is, the structure of the metal foam (cell distribution, cell shape). The understanding of the structure -property correlations in metal foams is required for optimizing its mechanical performance for a given application [9][10][11][12][13][14].…”