The constitutive behavior of metallic foams using nanoindentation technique and FE modeling

Nanoindentation data measured on the cell-wall of Al-alloy foams were analyzed to obtain the material properties of the cell wall. Using the obtained material properties, stress-strain curve of the foam in uniaxial compression was constructed by finite element modeling. The model developed for the analysis was a multiple cell model which utilized the unit cells as the basic building block of the foam. Both the in-plane and through-thickness density variations of the foam were considered in the model. The through-thickness density variation which is a function of casting or foaming process was represented using different densities for different foam layers, while the in-plane density variation which arises from internal defects (such as porosities, second phase particle, inclusions etc.) was assumed to follow a statistical probability distribution of Gaussian type. Uniaxial compression test was performed and the finite element analysis result was compared with the experimental result. The numerical model used in the study overpredicted the crushing strength of foams indicating that the model needs to be improved for predicting the real foam properties with better accuracy.