ON THE MODELING OF CRUSH BEHAVIOR OF A CLOSED-CELL ALUMINUM FOAM STRUCTURE

Crush behavior of a closed-cell aluminum foam is studied analytically and numerically. A new model of a truncated cube, which captures the b asic folding mechanism of an array of cells, is developed. The model c onsists of a system of collapsing cruciform and pyramidal sections. Th eoretical analysis is based on energy consideration in conjunction wit h the minimum principle in plasticity. The assumed kinematic model for the crushing mechanism of the truncated cube cell gives a good agreem ent with the deformation mechanism obtained from the numerical simulat ion. Analytical formulation for the crushing resistance of the truncat ed cube cell is shown to correlate very accurately with the numerical results. Closed form solutions for crushing resistance of closed-cell aluminum foam in terms of relative density are developed. The formulas are compared with the experimental results and give an excellent agre ement. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .