COMPRESSIVE DEFORMATION AND ENERGY ABSORBING CHARACTERISTIC OF FOAMEDALUMINUM

Experiments were carried out to investigate the deformation and energy absorbing characteristics and mechanisms of foamed aluminum (FA) with two different matrices. Some new results were obtained. It is found t hat, like other cellular solid materials, FA has a stress-strain curve with three distinct regions, i.e., the linear elasticity region, the plastic collapse region or brittle crushing region, and the densificat ion region. The energy absorbing capacity of FA increases by increasin g the relative density and the yielding strength. Brittle foam exhibit s higher capacity than plastic foam with similar yielding strengths. F A reaches its peak value of energy absorbing efficiency at the strain of about 0.15 to 0.35, depending on the relative density. AlMg10 foam shows higher absorbing capacity and efficiency than Al foam.