Quasi-static and dynamic axial crushing tests were carried out to investigate the energy absorption capacity of aluminum foam with several densities. First, aluminum foam samples with three densities were crushed quasi-statically to study their compression characteristics, the stress strain relationship curves and energy absorption capacities were achieved from the test results; then dynamic crushing tests were carried out to check the crushing behaviors of the corresponding samples; finally, the energy absorption capacities of tested samples were compared. According to the tests results, all the aluminum foam samples showed very good isotropy and very high mass specific energy absorption capacities. For the crushing tests, the dynamic crushing behaviors were very similar to the static ones, which meant aluminum foam was insensitive to the crash velocity tested.

Different aluminum foam filling lengths were used to increase the bending energy absorbing capacity of the popularly used hat sections. Bending energy-absorption performance of the thin-walled tubes was numerically studied by explicit non-linear software LS-Dyna. First empty hat section subjected to quasi-static bending crushing was simulated, then structures with different aluminium foam filling lengths were calculated, finally energy absorption capacity of these structures were compared. Calculation results showed that, the internal energy absorbed and mass specific energy absorption capacity of foam filled thin walled structures were increased significantly compared to the empty sections. The reason of the improvement was mainly due to the contact of the aluminium foam and the structure. Aluminium foam filling is a promising method for improving lateral energy absorbing capacity of thin-walled sections.