Compressive properties of aluminum foams by gas injection method

Abstract

The compressive properties of aluminum foams by gas injection method are investigated under both quasi-static and dynamic compressive loads in this paper. The experimental results indicate that the deformation of the aluminum foams goes through three stages: elastic deforming, plastic deforming and densification stage, during both the quasi-static and dynamic compressions. The aluminum foams with small average cell size or low porosity have high yield strength. An increase in strain rate can lead to an increase of yield strength. The yield strength of the aluminum foams under the dynamic loading condition is much greater than that under the quasi-static loading condition. Dynamic compressive tests show that a higher strain rate can give rise to a higher energy absorption capacity, which demonstrates that the aluminum foams have remarkable strain rate sensitivity on the loading rate.

Keywords

• aluminum foam
• strain rate
• porosity
• energy absorption