The Influence of Applied Force on Aluminium Foams Energy Absorption

Abstract

Aluminium foams are composite materials made of aluminium or, frequently, of aluminium alloys. They have cellular structure consisting of metal matrix and gas filled pores and are occasionally produced with extrusion technologies. One of the ways to produce foamed aluminium is to mix Al powder with a blowing agent. That way, the blowing agent releases gas at higher temperatures and at the end, with different technologies and methods, such as extrusion technology, mixture is compacted. Nine samples of aluminium foams were produced from the following precursor Alulight AlMgSi0,6 titanium hydride TiH2 (cylindrical shaped, dimension ø42 × 79,5 mm, relative density between 0,186 and 0,268. Aluminum foam investigated in this work had closed cells where quasi-static uniaxial compression was used to determine how applied force influences aluminium foams energy absorption properties. For energy absorption it is important to determine the critical force that will activate the maximum amount of absorbed energy. The dependence of energy absorption capacity and energy absorption efficiency on the compressive force was investigated, and then the obtained results were compared for different samples. By increasing the force, the energy absorption capacity of higher density foams increases faster. The energy absorption efficiency at low forces does not depend on the density of the samples but with increase of force, higher density foams become more efficient.

Keywords

• aluminium foams
• compression monitoring
• energy absorption capacity
• energy absorption efficiency
• quasi-static uniaxial compression