“…Porous materials can be widely applied in a number of engineering fields, involving separation, filtration, heat exchange, biological transplanting, electrochemical process and lightweight structures (Liu and Ma, 2020; Yusuf and Jha, 2018; Liu and Chen, 2014; Atwater et al , 2018), with the reticular metal foam (Plate 1) as a quite representative example (Liu and Ma, 2020; Atwater et al , 2018; August et al , 2016; Chen et al , 2018). In order to use these materials more effectively and reasonably, the research on their mechanical properties has aroused extensive interests (Gibson and Ashby, 1999; Xiao et al , 2015; Jung and Diebels, 2017; Huang et al , 2008, 2012; Benedik et al , 2010; Aly, 2010a, b; Soni and Biswas, 2018; Zhou et al , 2014; Tang et al , 2014; Palka et al , 2016; Wu et al , 2019; Schueler et al , 2013; Pang et al , 2011; Cho et al , 2019; Kaya and Fleck, 2014; Yang et al , 2019; Shi et al , 2017), and the present authors have also done some relevant works (Liu and Ma, 2020; Liu, 2000, 2004a, b, c, 2006, 2007, 2010a, b, c, 2011; Liu et al , 2003, 1999a, 2001a, b, 2009, 2011; Liu and Chen, 2009; Liu and Du, 2011, 2012). The published researches on the failure mode are mainly focused on metal foams under uniaxial tension and compression, while quite rare on that under other loading forms.…”