Mechanical behaviour of the porous and foam aluminium in conditions of compression: Determination of key mechanical characteristics

Abstract

The paper emphasizes harmonized recommendations for mechanical tests of highly-porous aluminium and aluminium foam to be applicable for analysing their compression response under quasi-static loading as well as determining reliable and reproducible results essentially required for practice problems of engineering design. Key mechanical parameters are designated and specified by considering distinctive features of deformation patterns indicative of porous aluminium and aluminium foam with a cellular structure. Special attention is paid to the problem related to inhomogeneous deformation of the above-mentioned materials, resulting in variation of quasi-elastic structural stiffness as well as shape and length of plateau regime of the stress-strain curve. Application of the harmonized recommendations is demonstrated with using several kinds of foam aluminium fabricated in line with different processing route. Using the above recommendation, significant effect of processing additives on micromechanism of deformation and, in turn, on macroscopic compressive response of Al foams resulted from contamination of the cell wall material by side products is shown and clarified.