Aluminium foam testing for impact energy absorption aims

Aluminium foams are a new group of materials used for impact energy absorbing elements. They are light (typically 10-25% of the density of the metal they are made of) and stiff, and are frequently proposed as a light weight structural material. That is why they often are applied in automotive and transport industry solutions, for example as parts of bumpers. The methods of numerical modelling for open and closed cell aluminium foams are presented in the paper as well as closed and open cellfoam microstructure model. The numerical models of foam ideal microstructures created with shell finite elements are shown. The models were developed on the basis of Kefain tetrakaidecahedrons - structures consisting of six squares and eight hexagons. In the case of closed cell foams, the polyhedron with full walls was adopted. In the case of open cell foams the circle wholes were removed from polyhedron surfaces. Then the numerical analysis of a created models compressive test was carried out with the usage of LS Dyna computer code. The nonlinear procedures were applied. The results were analyzed in the scope of energy absorbing properties of aluminium foams.