Mechanical Characterization of Particulate Aluminum Foams—Strain‐Rate, Density and Matrix Alloy versus Adhesive Effects

Abstract

The study evaluates mechanical properties of APM particulate aluminum foams built up from adhesively bonded Al foam spheres. Foams of matrix alloy AlSi10 are compared, with PM AlSi7 foams used as reference. The influence of density is studied both for quasi‐static and dynamic compressive loading in a range from ∼0.35 to 0.71 g cm−3. The effect of varying the bonding agent is evaluated for a single density and both strain rate levels by replacing the standard, high‐strength epoxy‐based adhesive with a polyamide of greatly increased ductility. The result is a clear shift of fracture events to higher strain levels, as well as the introduction of a strain‐rate dependency of strength.

Lightweight Structures Based on Aluminium Foam Granules

“…In comparison to 3-D foam components or foam plates, metal foam granules [3] can be produced in an easy and flexible way and can be combined with polymers, polymeric foams but also inorganic materials resulting in innovative tailor-made hybrid materials. In the present paper the production of aluminium foam granules, techniques for their subsequent processing to larger structures and the basic properties of the resulting hybrid materials will be described.…”

Mechanical Properties of Advanced Pore Morphology Foam Composites

“…It is thus understandable that the development of cellular materials and their manufacturing techniques is orientated towards the production of cellular materials where the topology and morphology could be controlled, resulting in more regular and homogeneous structures. Such developments led to metallic hollow sphere structures, advanced pore morphology foam, lotus-type porous metals and wire-woven bulk Kagome structures [4,[9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…Their detailed technology concept, production and properties are described in [51,54]. The pore sizes in single APM foam elements vary between 1.5 and 2.5 mm [12]. The APM foam parts exhibit two types of porosity: (i) the inner porosity in single APM foam elements and (ii) the outer porosity between many APM foam elements [55].…”

Mechanical Behavior of Particulate Aluminium‐Epoxy Hybrid Foams Based on Cold‐Setting Polymers

“…APM-foams [1][2][3][4][5] and aluminum-polymer hybrid foams [6] have been derived from the classic "Foaminal" technology [7,8] in order to facilitate the integration of foams into structures like tubes, extruded profiles, welded components, or sandwiches. [9] The main idea is that the aluminum foam is not produced in-situ within the structure, but pre-manufactured in the shape of small foam granules.…”

“…[6] When it comes to scatter of properties, however, both APM and hybrid foams typically show improvements over Foaminal materials, which means that the practically exploitable properties, taking safety factors into account, reach or exceed those of the latter. [4] However, even the moderate temperatures needed for the hybrid foam production so far (120-200 C for curing of the polymer) might represent a disadvantage, for example, in the case of temperature sensitive polymers and alloys (zinc, heat treated aluminum), or for very large structures. This simple fact provides the primary motivation for studying (two-or more component) cold setting adhesives in the present context, as these eliminate the need for heating the whole structure to elevated temperatures.…”