Effect of Pore Size and Distribution on Energy Absorption of Aluminum Foams Under Compressive Load
Jha, K¹; Umashankar, C.²; Kutty, T. R. G.²; Bhasin, V.²; Mahule, K. N.²; Kailas, S. V.³; Deb, A.^3
1Bhabha Atomic Research Centre; ²Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai; ³Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Aluminum foams are lightweight materials and can be used as impact energy absorbers. They have large plateau stress when subjected to compressive loading. Due to this, they offer a wide perspective of future application. The potential applications include sandwich cores, lightweight structures, crashworthiness and passive safety, etc. The selection of foam for a particular application is based on its energy absorbing capability, which in turn depends on many other factors like density of foam, pore sizes, distribution of pore sizes, etc.

In this paper, an attempt has been made to predict the energy absorption capabilities of foams by using finite element method. 3D models have been studied in terms of plateau stresses and energy absorption up to densification. Various possible combinations of spherical cavities have been considered. Compression tests have been carried out on foam samples of different compositions and different densities. These foams have been developed indigenously. They have been evaluated for parameters like plateau stress, energy absorption in unit volume as well as absorption in unit mass, etc. Numerical analysis has been compared with the experimental results.