Abstract
X-ray microcomputed tomography has been gaining relevance in the field of cellular materials to characterize materials and analyse their microstructure. So, here, it was used together with finite element modelling to develop numerical models to estimate the effective properties (Young’s modulus) of aluminium alloy foams and evaluate the effects of processing on the results. A manual global thresholding technique using the mass as a quality indicator was used. The models were reconstructed (Marching Cubes 33), then simplified and analysed in terms of mass and shape maintenance (Hausdorff distance algorithm) and face quality. Two simplification procedures were evaluated, with and without small structural imperfections, to evaluate the impact of the procedures on the results. Results demonstrate that the developed procedures are good at minimizing changes in mass and shape of the geometries while providing good face quality, i.e., face aspect ratio. The models are also shown to be able to predict the effective properties of metallic foams in accordance with the findings of other researchers. In addition, the process of obtaining the models and the presence of small structural imperfections were shown to have a great impact on the results.
Highlights
There have been some attempts to include aluminium alloy foams in mechanical design, such as crash-absorbing elements in vehicles, parts for milling machines and train prototypes, all taking advantage of the strength-to-weight ratio of the foams and their ability to absorb energy
Here, X-ray micro computed Tomography scans are used to construct 3D models to evaluate the mechanical properties of aluminium alloy foams, with special emphasis on the Young’s modulus, which bring much more detail and result, in theory, in a more exact analysis when compared to analytical models or models that use artificial/approximated geometries [9]
Based model lands very closely to the expected values determined by the analytical models but slightly above them. This could be possibly explained by the lack of small cracks and structural imperfections, which are eliminated by the process of simplification, and are known to reduce the strength of the material [43]
Summary
There have been some attempts to include aluminium alloy foams in mechanical design, such as crash-absorbing elements in vehicles (e.g., foam sandwich panels, foam filled thin wall tubes [1,2,3,4]), parts for milling machines and train prototypes, all taking advantage of the strength-to-weight ratio of the foams and their ability to absorb energy. Here, X-ray micro computed Tomography (μCT) scans are used to construct 3D models to evaluate the mechanical properties of aluminium alloy foams, with special emphasis on the Young’s modulus, which bring much more detail and result, in theory, in a more exact analysis when compared to analytical models or models that use artificial/approximated geometries [9]. These sorts of methods are commonly used in the medical field, material science, engineering and are being introduced in the field of cellular materials, despite the research on the topic still being limited and there being little standardization [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]
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