Interplay between shape and composition in the compressive response of aluminum foams

Authors

  • Jaroslav Kovacik Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics SAS, Dúbravská cesta 9/6319, 845 13 Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Jaroslav Jerz Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics SAS, Dúbravská cesta 9/6319, 845 13 Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Frantisek Simancik Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics SAS, Dúbravská cesta 9/6319, 845 13 Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Andrej Opalek Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics SAS, Dúbravská cesta 9/6319, 845 13 Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Selim Burak Canturk Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics SAS, Dúbravská cesta 9/6319, 845 13 Bratislava, Slovakia. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Slovak University of Technology, Námestie slobody 17, 812 31 Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Liviu Marsavina Romanian Academy - Timisoara Branch, Blvd. M. Viteazu, No. 24, Timisoara 300223, Romania. Department of Mechanics and Strength of Materials, Politehnica University Timisoara, 1 Mihai Viteazu Avenue, 300 222, Timisoara, Romania
  • Emanoil Linul Department of Mechanics and Strength of Materials, Politehnica University Timisoara, 1 Mihai Viteazu Avenue, 300 222, Timisoara, Romania

Keywords:

aluminum foams, shape effect, alloy composition, compressive behavior, microstructure, mechanical properties

Abstract

Comprehending the interplay between foam morphology, surface skin, geometry, and compressive behavior is fundamental to the design of advanced functional applications, including energy absorption (EA) systems, seismic mitigation devices, and Phase Change Material heat storage units. The influence of sample shape (cylinder-CYL, triangular prism-TRP and square prism-SQP) on microstructural and compression behavior was investigated for ductile (AlMg1Si0.6 + 1% wt. ZrH2) and brittle (AlSi12Mg0.6 + 0.4% wt. TiH2) aluminum alloy foams (AAFs). The different compositions and foaming agents led to unique cellular structures. The AAF structures exhibited heterogeneity, with variations between top and bottom parts of samples, but only small differences in pore numbers were observed. Total number of pores varied according to the cross-sectional shape, with CYLs having significantly more pores compared to TRPs and SQPs. Ductile AAF had small round pores with thick pore walls, while brittle AAFs exhibited regions with dense and thin pore structures due to coalescence and collapse during foaming. Precursor composition significantly impacted AAF structure, surface skin thickness, and compression. Compression strength, plateau stress, and EA were shape-dependent: SQPs performed best for brittle AAFs, while CYL samples showed higher ductile compression response and better EA in brittle AAFs. Densification strain was again observed independent on the sample shape, type of alloy, type and amount of foaming agent.

References

GIBSON, L., ASHBY, M., Cellular Solids: Structure and Properties, Cambridge Solid State Science Series, Cambridge University Press, 1997, 2nd ed. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139878326.

. ASHBY, M.F., EVANS, A.G., FLECK, N.A., GIBSON, L.J., HUTCHINSON, J.W., WADLEY, H.N.G., Metal Foams: A Design Guide, Butterworth-Heinemann: Boston, MA, USA, 2000.

BANHART, J., Manufacture, characterisation and application of cellular metals and metal foams, Progress in Materials Science, 46, 6, pp. 559-632., 2001, doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6425(00)00002-5.

DEGISCHER, H.P., KRISZT, B. (Eds.), Handbook of Cellular Metals, Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 2002.

SCHWINGE, D., SEELIGER, H.W., VECCHIONACCI, C., ALWES, D., DITTRICH, J., Aluminium foam sandwich structures for space applications, Acta Astronautica, 61, 1-6, pp. 326-330, 2007, doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2007.01.022.

VOILLAT, R., GALLIEN, F., MORTENSEN, A., GASS, V., Hypervelocity impact testing on stochastic and structured open porosity cast Al-Si cellular structures for space applications, International Journal of Impact Engineering, 120, pp. 126-137, 2018, doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2018.05.002.

EPASTO, G., DISTEFANO, F., GU, L., MOZAFARI, H., LINUL, E., Design and optimization of Metallic Foam Shell protective device against flying ballast impact damage in railway axles, Materials & Design, 196, 109120, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2020.109120.

GHIANI, C., LINUL, E., PORCU, MC., MARSAVINA, L., MOVAHEDI, N., AYMERICH, F., Metal Foam-Filled Tubes as Plastic Dissipaters in Earthquake-Resistant Steel Buildings, IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng., 416, 2018, 012051.

GOPINATHAN, A., JERZ, J., KOVACIK, J., Study of heat transfer characteristics of aluminium foam for PCM-based thermal energy storage applications, Mechanical Technology and Structural Materials, 70, pp. 35-42, 2021.

KOVACIK, J., JERZ, J., GOPINATHAN, A., SIMANCIK, F., MARSAVINA, L., LINUL, E., Effect of sample shape on compression behavior of aluminum foams, Mater. Today Proc., 78, 2, pp. 308-313, 2023.

MELLER, M.A., Produit métallique pour l’obtention d’objets laminés, moulés ou autres, et procédés pour sa fabrication, In French Patent 615.147, 1925.

SOSNIK, A., US Patent 2434775, 1948.

BJORKSTEN, J., Ultra-Lightweight Aluminium Foam, Modern Metals October 1957, 13, 9, 68-70, 1957.

ALLEN, B.C., US Patent 3087 807, 1963.

BAUMEISTER, J., Method for Producing Porous Metal Bodies, In German Patent 4018360, 29 May 1991.

THORNTON, P.H., MAGEE, C.L., The Deformation of aluminum foams, Metall Mater Trans A, 6, pp. 1253-1263, 1975, doi:10.1007/BF02658535.

THORNTON, P.H., MAGEE, C.L., Deformation characteristics of zinc foam, Metall Mater Trans A, 6, pp. 1801-1807, 1975, doi:10.1007/BF02642310.

BANHART, J., BAUMEISTER, J., Deformation characteristics of metal foams, J. Mater. Sci., 33, pp. 1431-1440, 1998.

KOVACIK, J., SIMANCIK, F., Aluminium foam-modulus of elasticity and electrical conductivity according to percolation theory, Scripta Materialia, 39, 2, pp. 239-246, 1998.

SIMANCIK, F., Reproducibility of aluminium foam properties, In Metal Foam and Porous Metal Structure; MIT-Verlag: Bremen, pp. 235-240, 1999.

KOVACIK, J., SIMANCIK, F., Comparison of zinc and aluminium foam behaviour, Kovove Mater, 42, 2, pp. 79-90, 2004.

KOVACIK, J., MARSAVINA, L., LINUL, E., Poisson’s Ratio of Closed-Cell Aluminium Foams, Materials, 11, 10, 2018, doi:10.3390/ma11101904.

KOVACIK, J., JERZ, J., MINARIKOVA, N., MARSAVINA, L., LINUL, E., Scaling of compression strength in disordered solids: Metallic foams, Frattura ed Integrita Strutturale, 10, 36, pp. 55-62, 2016.

LINUL, E., MARSAVINA, L., KOVACIK, J., SADOWSKI, T., Dynamic and quasi-static compression tests of closed-cell aluminium alloy foams, Proceedings of the Romanian Academy Series A - Mathematics Physics Technical Sciences Information Science, 18, 4, pp. 361-369, 2017.

KOVACIK, J., OROVCIK, L., JERZ, J., High-temperature compression of closed cell aluminium foams, Kovove Mater, 54, 6, pp. 429-440, 2016.

GOPINATHAN, A., JERZ, J., KOVACIK, J., DVORAK, T., Investigation of the Relationship between Morphology and Thermal Conductivity of Powder Metallurgically Prepared Aluminium Foams, Materials, 14, 3623, 2021, doi:10.3390/ma14133623.

KOVACIK, J., NOSKO, M., MINARIKOVA, N., SIMANCIK, F., JERZ, J., Closed-Cell Powder Metallurgical Aluminium Foams Reinforced with 3 vol.% SiC and 3 vol.% Graphite, Processes, 9, 2031, 2021, doi:10.3390/pr9112031.

GOPINATHAN, A., JERZ, J., KOVACIK, J., DVORAK, T., OROVCIK, L., Study of internal porous structure formation of the powder metallurgically prepared aluminium foam, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser., 2045, 012003, 2021.

KOVACIK, J., Correlation between Poisson's ratio and porosity in porous materials, J Mater Sci., 41, 4, pp. 1247-1249, 2006, doi.org/10.1007/s10853-005-4237-0.

OPIELA, K.C., ZIELINSKI, T.G., DVORAK, T., KUDELA, S.Jr., Perforated closed-cell aluminium foam for acoustic absorption, Applied Acoustics, 174, 107706, 2021, doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2020.107706.

GARCIA-MORENO, F., Commercial Applications of Metal Foams: Their Properties and Production, Materials, 9, 2, 85, 2016, doi:10.3390/ma9020085.

SOLORZANO, E., REGLERO, J.A., RODRIGUEZ-PEREZ, M.A.; LEHMHUS, D., WICHMANN, M., de SAJA, J.A., An experimental study on the thermal conductivity of aluminium foams by using the transient plane source method, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 51, 25-26, pp. 6259-6267, 2008.

FIEDLER, T., BELOVA, I.V., ÖCHSNER, A., MURCH, G.E., Non-linear calculations of transient thermal conduction in composite materials, Comput. Mater. Sci., 45, 2, pp. 434-438, 2009.

KORNER, C., Integral Foam Molding of Light Metals: Technology, Foam Physics and Foam Simulation, Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany, 2008.

CRUPI, V., EPASTO, G., GUGLIELMINO, E., Comparison of aluminium sandwiches for lightweight ship structures: Honeycomb vs. foam, Marine Structures, 30, pp. 74-96, 2013, doi.org/10.1016/j.marstruc.2012.11.002.

KHEZRZADEH, O., MIRZAEE, O., EMADODDIN, E., LINUL, E., Anisotropic compressive behavior of metallic foams under extreme temperature conditions, Materials, 13, 10, 2329, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.ma13102329.

ZHANG, Y.R., WANG, G.F., ZHANG, Y.L., YE, J., ZENG, T., ZHAO, K., ZHENG, Z.J., WAN, R., Crashworthiness design of car threshold based on aluminium foam sandwich structure, International Journal of Crashworthiness, 27, 4, pp. 1167-1178, 2022, doi:10.1080/13588265.2021.1914978.

LINUL, E., PIETRAS, D., SADOWSKI, T., MARSAVINA, L., RAJAK, D.K., KOVACIK, J., Crashworthiness performance of lightweight Composite Metallic Foams at high temperatures, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 149, 106516, 2021, doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2021.106516.

UZUN, A., Compressive crush performance of square tubes filled with spheres of closed-cell aluminum foams, Archives Of Metallurgy And Materials, 62, 3, pp. 1755-1760, 2017.

CAROFALO, A., De GIORGI, M., MORABITO, A., Geometric modelling of metallic foams, Engineering Computations, 30, 7, pp. 924-935, 2013, doi:10.1108/EC-06-2011-0070.

BANHART, J., SEELIGER, H.W., Recent trends in aluminum foam sandwich technology, Adv. Eng. Mater., 14, pp. 1082-1087, 2012.

LINUL, E., LELL, D., MOVAHEDI, N., CODREAN, C., FIEDLER, T., Compressive properties of zinc syntactic foams at elevated temperatures, Composites Part B: Engineering, 167, pp. 122-134, 2018, doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2018.12.019.

ORBULOV, I.N., SZLANCSIK, A., KEMENY, A., KINCSES, D., Compressive mechanical properties of low-cost, aluminium matrix syntactic foams, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 135, 105923, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2020.105923.

LINUL, E., KHEZRZADEH, O., Axial crashworthiness performance of foam-based composite structures under extreme temperature conditions, Composite Structures, 271, 114156, 2021, doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2021.114156.

MOVAHEDI, N., LINUL, E., Radial crushing response of ex-situ foam-filled tubes at elevated temperatures, Composite Structures, 277, 114634, 2021, doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2021.114634.

RAJAK, D.K., MAHAJAN, N.N., LINUL, E., Crashworthiness performance and microstructural characteristics of foam-filled thin-walled tubes under diverse strain rate, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 775, pp. 675 - 689, 2019, DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2018.10.160.

RODINGER, T., ?ORIC, D., ALAR, Ž., The Influence of Foaming Agents on Aluminium Foam Cell Morphology, Metals, 13, 1146, 2023, https://doi.org/10.3390/met13061146.

ISO 13314:2011(en), Mechanical testing of metals — Ductility testing — Compression test for porous and cellular metals.

OROVCIK, ?., NOSKO, M., KOVACIK, J., DVORAK, T., ŠTEPANEK, M., SIMANCIK, F., Effects of chemical composition on the pore structure and heat treatment on the deformation of PM aluminium foams 6061 and 7075, Kovove Mater, 54, 06, pp. 463-470, 2016.

NIA, A.A., HAMEDANI, J.H., Comparative analysis of energy absorption and deformations of thin-walled tubes with various section geometries, Thin-Walled Structures, 48, 12, pp. 946-954, 2010, doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2010.07.003.

HONG, W., JIN, F., ZHOU, J., XIA, Z., XU, Y., YANG, L., ZHENG, Q., FAN, H., Quasi-static axial compression of triangular steel tubes, Thin-Walled Struct., 62, pp. 10-17, 2013.

FAN, Z., LU, G., YU, T., LIU, K., Axial crushing of triangular tubes, Int. J. Appl. Mech., 5, 1350008, 2013.

SU, P., HAN, B., WANG, Y., WANG, H., GAO, B., LU, T.J., Crashworthiness of Foam-Filled Cylindrical Sandwich Shells with Cor-rugated Cores, Materials, 16, 6605, 2023, https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16196605.

ABRAMOWICZ, W., WIERZBICKI, T., Axial Crushing of Multicorner Sheet Metal Columns, ASME. J. Appl. Mech. March 1989, 56, 1, pp. 113-120, 1989, doi.org/10.1115/1.3176030.

Published

2025-12-13

Issue

Vol. 70 No. 1-3 (2025): THE FUTURE OF APPLIED MECHANICS

Section

Articles

Copyright (c) 2025 The Romanian Journal of Technical Sciences. Applied Mechanics.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.