Investigation on mechanical properties of nickel open cell metal foam after heat treatment

Abstract

Abstract This investigation aims to assess the mechanical behavior and energy absorption properties of the open-cell nickel foams. The metal foams produced by electroforming of nickel on PU foams, also a heat treatment has applied to evaporate the PU foam, then a uniaxial compression test was applied to measure maximum compressive strength, energy absorption density, efficiency, and normalized stresses. The results indicate that compared with typical open-cell nickel foams and polymer precursors when the electroforming time is 12 h and a heat treatment has applied, the aforementioned properties of the metal foams had a significant improvement. Improvement of properties will change by increasing the time of electroforming. The heat treatment improved the energy absorption density of open-cell nickel foams for 3.7 times. For the best sample which is a metal foam with 12 h of electroforming with heat treatment the first maximum compressive strength, energy absorption density, and energy absorption efficiency reach 1.84 (MPa), 3.29 (mJ/mm3), and 73%, respectively.