Influence of closed faces on compressive strength of open cell metallic foams

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the influence of closed faces on the compressive strength of open cell metallic foams computationally. To this end, numerical models are developed for a commercial product of open cell aluminium foams (ERG Duocel), and a perfect model for Kelvin open cell foams is extended by introducing a closed face into the cubic unit cell. Finite element analysis using a homogenisation approach is performed for three different closed face models as well as for the perfect model. It is found that the introduction of closed faces into the perfect model hardly increases the compressive strength of Kelvin open cell foams, and mainly causes the increase in relative density. The applicability of the developed closed face model is verified by comparison with semiempirical relations.

Keywords:

• Metallic foams
• Compressive strength
• Homogenisation
• Yielding
• Buckling
• Defect