Dynamic bending response of double cylindrical tubes filled with aluminum foam

The dynamic three-point bending behavior of double cylindrical tubes filled with closed-cell aluminum foam core was studied experimentally and numerically. It is found that the deformation mode of this new structure under impact loading is different to that under quasi-static loading. The load carrying capacity of the structure subjected to impact remains at the level of that in the quasi-static situation. Compared with traditional foam-filled single tubes, the specific energy absorption efficiency of this new structure is much higher, and that of both foam-filled structures in the dynamic situation are higher than that in static situation. A preliminary experimental study on the effect of profiles and span of the structure were performed, and the result shows that these parameters affect the structure together. Numerical simulation of the bending behavior was also executed with the explicit finite element method. The mechanism of the dynamic response is revealed by comparison of the maximum strain history in the simulation.     

Design and manufacturing of anti-intrusion bars made of aluminium foam filled tubes

The role of an anti-intrusion bar for automotive use is to absorb the kinetic energy of the colliding vehicles that is partially converted into internal work of the members involved in the crash. The aim of this paper is to investigate the performances of anti-intrusion bars, made by tubes filled with aluminium foams. The reason for using a cellular material as a filler deals with its capacity to absorb energy during plastic deformation, while being lightweight. The study is mainly conducted by evaluating some key technical issues of the manufacturing problem and by running experimental and numerical analyses. The evaluation of materials and shapes of the closed sections to be filled is made in the perspective of a car manufacturer (production costs, weight reduction, space availability in a car door, etc.). Experimentally, foams are produced starting from an industrial aluminium precursor with a TiH₂ blowing agent. Empty and foam filled tubes are tested in three point bending, in order to evaluate their performances in terms of several performance parameters. Different manufacturing conditions, geometries and tube materials are investigated. The option of using hydroformed tubes, with non constant cross section, for the production of foam filled side structures id also discussed.     

Shear properties of CMB syntactic foam

In this research, a triaxial shear test is used as a means to provide yield surface data as well as other strength characteristics for carbon microballoon (CMB) syntactic foam. Additionally, pure shear tests and tensile tests are used to probe areas of this stress space not included in the triaxial shear tests. The data are used to characterize the material’s yield strength in stress space. The determined yield surface, the strain and other deformational behavior characteristics provide the necessary information for an accurate model and engineering design. The CMB foam specimens were divided into two sets: one with Thornel pitch-based carbon fibers and one without; both use Kerimid 601 as the binder. The CMB syntactic foam with fibers exhibited lower shear strength than the CMB syntactic foam without fibers. This is evident not only in the determined shear envelopes but also in the values obtained for the hydrostatic yield of both foams. Complementary analysis of the blending process of mixing fibers with CMB has been shown to destroy the microballoons and thus reduce the foams strength. The consequences of incorporating alternative materials can be verified with further testing.     

泡沫铝填充薄壁铝合金方管轴向压缩性能的数值模拟

泡沫铝填充薄壁结构的应用日趋广泛,研究了泡沫铝填充薄壁铝合金方管准静态轴向压缩条件下的力学性能。实验选用铝合金方管作为面板,Al-Mg合金泡沫铝作为夹芯制备泡沫铝填充薄壁铝合金方管。结果表明泡沫铝层合方管与薄壁铝合金方管的变形模式相同,都为对称叠缩变形模式,而且层合方管产生的折叠数比薄壁铝合金方管多。填充泡沫铝后,层合方管承受压力的能力也大大提高。采用ABAQUS软件建立了薄壁铝合金方管的有限元模型进行数值模拟,并且与相应的实验结果作对比,结果表明数值模拟与实验结果基本吻合。     

Experimental studies on the quasi-static bending behavior of double square tubes filled with aluminum foam

Quasi-static experiments were performed on empty tubes and aluminum foam-filled single and double tubes to study the effects of different filler arrangements on their three-point bending behavior. The load-carrying capacity and energy absorption of different structures are compared. The results confirm the advantage of the foam-filled structures. In particular, the double tube structure with aluminum foam filler enhances the load-carrying capacity, crashworthiness, and total and specific energy absorptions of the structure, in comparison with the foam-filled single tube. It was also found that increasing the wall thickness of the inner tube improves the performance of the structure within the experimental range, and adhesion between foam and tube has a negative effect.     

Studies on compressive failure features in syntactic foam material

Syntactic foam made by mechanical mixing of glass hollow spheres in epoxy resin matrix is characterized for compressive properties in the present study. Volume fraction of hollow spheres in the syntactic foam under investigation is kept at 67.8%. Effect of specimen aspect ratio on failure behavior and stress-strain curve of the material is highlighted. Considerable differences are noted in the macroscopic fracture features of the specimen and the stress-strain curve with the variation in specimen aspect ratio, although compressive yield strength values were within a narrow range. Post compression test scanning electron microscopic observations coupled with the macroscopic observations taken during the test helped in explaining the deviation in specimen behavior and in gathering support for the proposed arguments.     

泡沫铝填充装甲抗射流侵彻的防护性能研究

为提高装甲抗聚能射流侵彻性能,研究新型的泡沫铝填充装甲,运用ANSYS/LS-DYNA 3D有限元分析软件,对聚能射流侵彻泡沫铝填充装甲过程进行数值模拟,对比分析均质装甲和泡沫铝填充装甲的防护性能,结果表明:泡沫铝填充装甲较均质装甲有更好的防护性能。通过运用正交分析法研究前置靶板厚度、靶板材料、泡沫铝厚度、泡沫铝密度对装甲防护性能的影响,得到最优方案。研究结果对泡沫金属填充装甲的工程应用有一定的参考价值。     

Compression fatigue performance of a fire resistant syntactic foam

Compression–compression fatigue test study of a fire resistant Eco-Core was conducted at two values of stress ratios (R = 10 and 5). Tests were conducted at S_min/S_o values of 0.9–0.6 for R = 10 and 0.95–0.8 for R = 5. Here S_min is the maximum compression stress and S_o is the compression strength. The study showed that Eco-Core has well defined failure modes and associated fatigue lives. The failure modes are: damage on-set; damage progression, and final failure. The damage on-set, propagation and final failure were characterized by 2%, 5% and 7% changes in compliance. The three failure modes were found to be same for both static and fatigue loadings. The endurance limit was found to be 0.72S_o, 0.75S_o and 0.76S_o, respectively for three failure modes for R = 10 and 0.81S_o, 0.82S_o and 0.82S_o, respectively for R = 5. The fatigue life is defined by a power law equation, S_min/S_o = A_oN^α. Constants of the equation were established for all three modes of failures and the two stress ratios. Finally, fatigue life was found to be less sensitive to R ratio when expressed in terms of stress range versus number of load cycles, which is similar to that of metallic materials.     

Comprehensive analyses of syntactic foam behaviour in deepwater environment

Over the past 10 years, numerous studies were performed to better understand the behaviour of the glass syntactic foams used as thermal insulation of pipes for deepwater production. The obtained results outlined some specific behaviour of polymeric syntactic foams reinforced by glass microballoons in service conditions: both water uptake and mechanical stress have a key impact on thermal properties. This article focuses first on the wet behaviour of glass syntactic foams. The effect of water is investigated to better model the nature of water diffusing in syntactic foams with and without a topcoat protection. Secondly, the effect of hydrostatic pressure on coated structure is addressed by using a confined compression test. As polymer material is bonded to the steel surface, it is not submitted to pure hydrostatic loading but to non-spherical loading in the vicinity of the pipe. The confined compression test is then chosen to represent these non-spherical loadings of material. The rupture of glass microballoons is monitored by acoustic emission for different matrices and attempts are made to quantify the resulting acoustic emission signals by comparison with prior tomography results. These experimental analyses provide a better understanding of the main factors affecting the functional properties of syntactic foams.     

Stabilizing intermetallic phases within aluminum foam

Because of ambiguity in microstructural characterization of cell wall material of Alporas® aluminum foam in literature until now, the study was focused to contribute to the examination of microstructural variability, and to reveal differences in distribution of stabilizing intermetallic phases in microstructure and their identification. It was shown that the microstructure consists of four precipitates distributed in α-Al matrix. The energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy revealed the presence of precipitates with compositions of AlCa, AlCaTi, AlCaFe and AlCaTiFe. However, selected area electron diffraction and X-ray diffraction confirmed that all analyzed precipitates could be indexed only in terms of tetragonal Al₄Ca or cubic Al₂₀CaTi₂. It was shown that the distribution of intermetallic compounds in cell wall material is affected by height position in the foamed block — they are either distributed along the grain boundaries of α-Al in the bottom area or they are dispersed in the α-Al matrix in the middle and top area.     

Lightweight mortar made with recycled polyurethane foam

This paper presents results of an experimental study on the use of rigid polyurethane foam wastes with cement-based mixtures to produce lightweight mortar. Several mortar grades were obtained by mixing cement with different amounts of polyurethane, aggregate and water. Dosages were varied to replace aggregates with recycled polyurethane, while the amount of water was optimized to obtain good workability. Rigid polyurethane was ground to particle sizes of less than 4 mm prior to use as an aggregate substitute. The characteristics of the test specimens were defined and they were tested in both a fresh and a hardened state. Results show that an increase in the amount of polyurethane affects the mortar, decreasing its density and mechanical properties while increasing its workability, permeability, and occluded air content. These results confirm that mortar produced with recycled polyurethane is comparable to lightweight mortar made with traditional materials.     

Isogrid stiffened syntactic foam cored sandwich structure under low velocity impact

In this study, a new sandwich structure with a hybrid cellular core (periodic isogrid stiffened stochastic syntactic foam) was fabricated using the pin-guided dry-weaving technology, evaluated by low velocity impact and in-plane compression after impact (CAI) tests, visualized by C-scan and SEM, and modeled by finite element analysis. It is found that the stretch-dominating isogrid skeleton develops synergy with and provides confinement to the foam, leading to an CAI strength much higher than that of the laminated control plate. Subjected to concentrated impact loading, each cell responds in a boundary controlled quasi-static manner. Although the bay absorbs the highest amount of impact energy, the CAI strength is the highest when the impact is in the bay, followed by impact in the rib and impact in the node. Also, the CAI strength reduces as the bay area increases. The sandwich deviates slightly from in-plane quasi-isotropy primarily due to incomplete cells along the boundary of specimens.     

Radius ratio effect on high-strain rate properties of syntactic foam composites

The high-strain rate compressive properties of syntactic foams are characterized in this study. This study is performed using a pulse-shaped Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar technique. Nine different types of syntactic foams are fabricated with the same matrix resin system but three different size microballoons and three different microballoon volume fractions. The microballoons have the same outer radius of 40 μm, but different internal radii leading to a difference in their densities. The volume fractions of the microballoons in the syntactic foams are maintained at 0.1, 0.3, and 0.6. Analysis is carried out on the effect of the microballoon radius ratio at each volume fraction on the high-strain rate properties. This approach is helpful in separating and categorizing the contribution of matrix and microballoons to the dynamic compressive properties of syntactic foams. The results at high-strain rates are compared to quasi-static strain rate compressive properties of the same material. The results show that there is little or no significant change in both compressive strength and modulus of syntactic foams at all radius ratios when tested at strain rates of 400–500/s compared to quasi-static rates. However, higher dynamic strength and stiffness values are obtained consistently at all radius ratios when tested at 800–1000/s compared to quasi-static values. It is observed that the radius ratio does not affect the syntactic foam properties significantly when tested at the same high-strain rate and volume fraction. Scanning electron microscopy is carried out to understand the fracture modes of the syntactic foams.     

Electrical properties of hollow glass particle filled vinyl ester matrix syntactic foams

Low dielectric constant materials play a key role in modern electronics. In this regard, hollow particle reinforced polymer matrix composites called syntactic foams may be useful due to their low and tailored dielectric constant. In the current study, vinyl ester matrix/glass hollow particle syntactic foams are analyzed to understand the effect of hollow particle wall thickness and volume fraction on the dielectric constant of syntactic foams. The dielectric constant is found to decrease with increase in the hollow particle volume fraction and decrease in the wall thickness. Theoretical estimates are obtained for the dielectric constant of syntactic foams. Parametric studies are conducted using the theoretical model. It is found that a wide range of syntactic foam compositions can be tailored to have the same dielectric constant, which provides possibility of independently tailoring density and other properties based on the requirement of the application.     

The formability of aluminum foam sandwich panels

The present paper aims to study the formability of Aluminum Foam Sandwich (AFS) panels. At now, the final shape of foamed devices is directly obtained through the foaming process itself and no further shaping steps are expected. In any case, further manufacturing processes may be exploited to produce more complex parts. Among forming operations, bending can be regarded as one of the simplest processes for both study and application. Besides, bending tests may yield interesting information about material properties. With regard to the metal foams characterization, several bending tests on AFS panels fabricated by Alulight® were carried out by varying the process conditions. A universal testing machine was employed for this purpose, collecting data about the deformed geometry and about load vs. displacement. Even though the samples deformation was related to the occurrence of foam cells failure or collapse, once the process was terminated, they still retained a significant bending strength. The metal foams properties were also investigated using both non-destructive and mechanical tests. In particular, thickness measurements (using an ultrasonic feeler), X-ray analysis and foam density measurements were carried out on AFS specimens before the execution of both upsetting and bending tests. Finite Element simulations of the foam bending process were performed to investigate stress and strain distributions on the specimens. In particular, an isothermal plane strain model of the bending process was setup using the FEM commercial code Deform 2D. The results of this study were used to produce closed structure components (square shapes) by combining three 90° bends. A further improvement consisted in joining the open ends, to enhance shear and torsion resistance. Among joining techniques conventional welding processes (Tungsten Inert Gas—TIG and laser) and a non-conventional method (Friction Stir Welding—FSW) were investigated. Finally, the mechanical properties of the joints were characterized using both three and four point bending tests.     

Anisotropic damping behavior of closed-cell aluminum foam

Closed-cell aluminum foams were prepared by molten body transitional foaming process. The anisotropic damping property of closed-cell aluminum foam was measured in two directions using the forced vibration method. The measured results show that the loss factors of the TD specimens are higher than that of the LD specimens. The loss factors ratio β_L/β_T depends linearly on the shape-anisotropy ratio R. Anisotropic damping behavior is due to the variation of Young’s modulus resulting from anisotropic cell morphology.     

空心玻璃微珠填充环氧复合泡沫材料的制备及性能表征

通过优化试验，以大量空心玻璃微珠填充环氧树脂体系制备出了密度低、强度高的复合泡沫材料，并对其密度和水下声学性能进行了表征。结果表明，所研制的轻质高强复合泡沫材料密度在0．3～0．5g／cm^3之间，且在高静水压下具有良好声学性能。     

Durability of shape memory polymer based syntactic foam under accelerated hydrolytic ageing

In this study, accelerated hydrolytic ageing of shape memory polymer (SMP) based syntactic foam after two-dimensional (2D) programming or training (compression in one direction and tension in the transverse direction) was investigated experimentally. Mechanical properties and shape recovery functionality of the aged foam were tested. The results indicate that the moisture absorption for original and programmed foams is less than 1% at room temperature for 90 days. The moisture absorption in saltwater is less than that in rainwater, and the original foam absorbs more moisture compared to the programmed foam. Hydrolytic aged foams exhibit a slight decrease in mechanical strength, and show an increase in ductility, regardless of the original or programmed foams. Water immersion also leads to lowering in glass transition temperature of the foam. Furthermore, the rainwater has a larger influence on the mechanical properties than the saltwater does. It is concluded that the foam basically maintains its shape recovery functionality after 2D programming and moisture attacks.