Compressive behaviour of aluminium matrix syntactic foams reinforced by iron hollow spheres

Abstract

HighlightsLow pressure infiltration is suitable to produce MMSFs with hollow iron spheres.The MMSFs showed plastic yielding and long, slowly ascending plateau region.The matrix and the heat treatment strongly influence the properties of the MMSFs.The full-scale FEM model gives excellent agreement compared to the measured values. Highlights (for review) *Manuscript Click here to view linked References AbstractAluminium alloy syntactic foams reinforced with iron hollow spheres were produced by low pressure, liquid phase inert gas infiltration technique. Four Al alloys (Al99.5, AlSi12, AlMgSi1 and AlCu5) and Globomet grade iron hollow spheres were used as matrix and reinforcing material, respectively. The produced composite blocks were characterised according to the ruling standard for compression of cellular materials in order to ensure full comparability. The compressive test results showed plastic yielding and a long, slowly ascending plateau region that ensures large energy absorption capability. The proper selection of the matrix material and the applied heat treatment allows for a wide range of tailoring of the mechanical properties. For design purposes, the full-scale finite element method (FEM) model of the investigated foams was created and tested on Al99.5 matrix foams. The FEM results showed very good agreement with the measured values (typically within 5% in the characteristic properties and within 10% for the whole compression curve).

On the Mechanical Properties of Aluminum Matrix Syntactic Foams

“…[7] Theoretically, MMSFs can be produced from any kind of metals, however their matrix is usually a grade of lightweight alloy (most commonly from the family of Al [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] or Mg [19][20][21][22] alloys). [3,6,13,36,37] In the group of ceramics, most commonly 'fly-ash' [22,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] (in some cases surface treated fly-ash [29] ), alumina, [50][51][52][53][54] or silicon carbide [4,[52][53][54] are applied. Even attempts to produce MMSFs with metallic glass matrix have been done.…”

“…[35] The filler material (or reinforcement in the composite technologist point of view) is usually built up from oxide ceramics or from iron based metals (steels). [3,6,13,36,37] In the group of ceramics, most commonly 'fly-ash' [22,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] (in some cases surface treated fly-ash [29] ), alumina, [50][51][52][53][54] or silicon carbide [4,[52][53][54] are applied. Fly-ash is a byproduct of coal power plants, they are quite cheap and available in large quantities, however their chemical composition can significantly vary and the scatter in their diameter is relatively high.…”

Effect of Layer Thickness in Layered Aluminum Matrix Syntactic Foam

“…The mechanical properties of AMSFs with a homogeneous structure were widely studied. Zhao and Tao [7,8] fabricated AMSFs using the infiltration method and studied the effect of Al volume percentage on the compression and energy absorption properties. The confined compression response was also analyzed, as well as the failure mechanisms in AMSFs [9].…”

Compressive Response Determination of Closed-Cell Aluminium Foam and Linear-Elastic Finite Element Simulation of μCT-Based Directly Reconstructed Geometrical Models

“…A finite element model was introduced for the determination of mechanical properties of non-uniform cellular aluminium in [31]. A random number generator was established to model the proper distribution of the hollow spheres, and finite element simulation was performed to determine the compressive material response of metal matrix syntactic foams in [32]. Syntactic foam structure was analysed and the threedimensional CAD model was established in [33].…”