Energy Absorption Efficiency of Open-Cell Carbon Foams

Abstract

Energy absorbing properties of open-cell carbon foams were evaluated by quasi-static and dynamic compression tests. Though carbon foams show brittle deformation behaviors, they have wide plateau region. The plateau stress linearly increases with increasing the relative density. Furthermore, the strain rate sensitivity is 0.03 and 0.15 at low and high strain rate region, respectively. Indentation tests were performed on cylindrical sample having porosity of 92.3 to 92.8% with different impact speeds. No plateau region is observed and macro cracks occur in the high speed indentation test. The energy absorption efficiency of carbon foams is higher than that of conventional aluminum foams because of their wide plateau regions.