English

Abstract

Recently, there has been a high interest in using lightweight aluminum foams for automotive, railway and aerospace operations. Because of its high ductility and deformability, Aluminum foam is generally used for energy absorption for crashworthiness applications. To keep safe and avoid occupant injuries, it is necessary to absorb the kinetic energy generated during impact. Thus, to absorb high kinetic energy, the crash box material needs a special material microstructure, which is light in weight and can absorb further energy than the being one like CaCo3, CBC, or SiC. B4C etc. In particular, the analysis of energy absorption of aluminum foam in automotive for energy absorption applications is limited. The main objective of this exploration is to analyze and optimize the porosity size and voids percentage on impact energy absorption of aluminum foam using a numerical approach. For this purpose, first, fifteen CAD Al foam samples were developed by using Digimat multi-scale material modeling software. Second, cubic elements with circular bubble shape at 5, 10 and 15 void percentage and at 1.5 mm, 2 mm,2.5 mm, 3 mm and 3.5 mm bubble sizes were modeled. Finally, the numerical analysis of impact energy by using ANSYS workbench19.2 Explicit dynamics by applying initial low velocity was performed. The parameters were compared to each other to optimize the proper percentage composition and cell size for the best energy absorption applications. The effects of bubble shape, foaming agent and percentage composition on energy immersion were discussed. In this study, the analysis was fulfilled by determining and comparing the energy absorptions of all the models and, finally, comparing them with existing foaming agents.