Homogeneous Metal Foam Manufacturing and Impact Test Performance

Abstract

In this investigation, metal foam was produced by casting aluminum around intersecting ceramic cylinders. Through this study, an attempt was made to propose the use of homogeneous metal foams in impact attenuation. The metal foam in this investigation was made using a novel casting method. The testing was done on a UTM and subsequent simulations on an explicit dynamic solver in an ABAQUS environment. The crash simulation is initiated after a certain level of similarity between results of the UTM compression test and FEM compression analysis. The results demonstrate that a compact and cheap impact energy absorption unit can be made using the described method. The simulation compares a solid block to the obtained foam in terms of "Energy absorption per unit volume" and total kinetic energy of the impact test set-up.