Mechanical Properties Of The Ceramic Open-Cell Foams Of Variable Cell Sizes

Abstract

The mechanical properties and numerical model of ceramic alumina open-cell foam, which is produced by the chemical method of gelcasting with different cell sizes (porosities) are presented. Geometric characteristics of real foam samples were estimated from tomographic and scanning electron microscopy images. Using this information, numerical foam model was proposed. A good agreement between the numerical model and the results elaborated from microtomography was obtained. To simulate the deformation processes the finite element program ABAQUS was used. The main goal of this computation was to obtain macroscopic force as a function of applied vertical displacement in compression test.

Keywords

• mechanical properties of foams
• alumina open-cell foam
• Young modulus
• strength of alumina foams