Numerical Analysis of Metal Foams Submitted Todynamical Loading

Abstract

Metallic foams provide low density, high specific stiffness, high energy absorption and good damping and are thus interesting alternatives for structural applications. Impact energy is dissipated through cell bending, buckling or fracture. On the other hand, results of the strain-rate and inertia effects during dynamic deformation of cellular metals are apparently conflicting. A better understanding is found in studies that show that the relative importance of the strain-rate and inertia effects depends on the impact velocity and the geometry of the structure, but still no particular formulation is generally accepted. In the present paper, computational dynamical analyses of Representative Volume Elements (RVE) of Metallic Hollow Sphere Structures (MHSS) and RVE sets are performed considering various geometries, material properties and loading rates.