Self-Piercing Riveting of Metal Foam Sandwich Structures

Abstract

Metal foam sandwich structures are widely used in construction and transportation elds because of their good acoustic performance, high thermal stability, lightweight, and high stiffness. This paper deals with join-ability of self-piercing riveted metal foam sandwich structures. Self-piercing riveting tests were performed on AA5052 aluminium alloy sandwich structures embedded with different metal foams. Tensile-shear tests were conducted to characterize the mechanical properties of different self-piercing riveted metal foam sandwich structures. The results illustrate that the connection of metal foam sandwich structures can be effectively realised with the self-piercing riveting technique. The joints exhibit good forming quality and mechanical performance. For metal foam sandwich joints, the sandwich structures embedded with nickel foam exhibits the best mechanical properties. The failure modes of the self-piercing riveted sandwich structures were observed at the separation of the lower sheets and rivet.

Analysis of the Heat Transfer in Electronic Radiator Filled with Metal Foam

“…Equation (11) was used to obtain the relation curve between the Nu and Re of the radiator. As shown in Figure 10, the Nusselt number of the electronic heat sink filled with metal foam is significantly higher than the Nusselt number of the electronic heat sink not filled with metal foam.…”

“…The drag coefficient of the electronic heat sink with metal foam filling is significantly higher than that of the electronic heat sink without metal foam filling, due to the structure of the filling metal foam itself. Equation (11) was used to obtain the relation curve between the Nu and Re of the radiator. As shown in Figure 10, the Nusselt number of the electronic heat sink filled with metal foam is significantly higher than the Nusselt number of the electronic heat sink not filled with metal foam.…”

“…In recent years, metal porous materials have been used due to their unique properties and the combination of structural and functional material properties [1][2][3]. Widely used in biological, medical [4][5][6], aerospace [7] and industrial applications [8][9][10][11][12], the high demand for green materials in various fields has driven the development of metal foam. Porous metal foam structures with high specific surface area, high permeability properties and high mechanical strength are being explored as an alternative material to conventional heat exchangers.…”

Plastic joining of open-cell nickel foam and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) sheet by friction stir incremental forming

“…In this method, the foam was stirred with the sheet by a tool with a probe. Liu et al (2017) joined open-cell type nickel, copper and iron-nickel foams with aluminum alloy sheet by self-piercing riveting. Wang et al (2010) fabricated an open-cell type aluminum foam with an aluminum alloy sheet by vibration aided liquid phase bonding.…”

Self-piercing riveting of aluminium–lithium alloy sheet materials

“…He et al (2015) studied SPR processes for joining similar or dissimilar sheet materials in Al alloy 5052 and copper alloy H62, and further analysed the mechanical performances, failure modes and fracture mechanisms of these joints in detail. Liu et al (2017) investigated the SPR process for joining metal foam sandwich structures in Al alloys; they found that the joints embedded with nickel foam exhibited a preferable mechanical property and the failure modes were primarily the rivet separated from the lower sheet. Fratini and Ruisi (2009) investigated the hybrid SPR joints between composite panels and Al alloys in detail.…”