Abstract
The paper focuses on the fabrication of novel aluminium cellular structures and their metallographic and mechanical characterisation. The aluminium UniPore specimens have been manufactured by rolling a thin aluminium foil with acrylic spacers for the first time. The novel approach allows for the cheaper and faster fabrication of the UniPore specimens and improved welding conditions since a lack of a continuous wavy interface was observed in the previous fabrication process. The rolled assembly was subjected to explosive compaction, which resulted in a unidirectional aluminium cellular structure with longitudinal pores as the result of the explosive welding mechanism. The metallographic analysis confirmed a strong bonding between the foil surfaces. The results of the quasi-static and dynamic compressive tests showed stress–strain behaviour, which is typical for cellular metals. No strain-rate sensitivity could be observed in dynamic testing at moderate loading velocities. The fabrication process and the influencing parameters have been further studied by using the computational simulations, revealing that the foil thickness has a dominant influence on the final specimen geometry.
Highlights
There is an ever-increasing demand for new multifunctional lightweight materials in advanced applications in engineering, transportation, and medicine, which can often be met by cellular metals.Their behaviour can be tailored [1] by combining the base material, porosity, morphology and topology according to [2]
UniPore structureswith withunidirectional unidirectional pores shown twotwo main disadvantages: UniPore structures poreshave have shown main disadvantages: (i) moderate welding conditions, which result in a lack of a continuous wavy interface at some (i) moderate welding conditions, which result in a lack of a continuous wavy interface at some bonded bonded sections, and (ii) the fabrication consists of filling the expensive thin inner pipes with a sections, and (ii) the fabrication consists of filling the expensive thin inner pipes with a polymer to avoid polymer to avoid complete compaction and its removal after fabrication
Explosive compaction has been applied for the been applied for the first time to fabricate the rolled aluminium UniPore specimens
Summary
There is an ever-increasing demand for new multifunctional lightweight materials in advanced applications in engineering, transportation, and medicine, which can often be met by cellular metals. Their behaviour can be tailored [1] by combining the base material, porosity, morphology (size and shape of the cells, connectivity between cells) and topology (distribution of the cells within the material) according to [2]. The main advantages of cellular materials and structures are a lightweight design, fire retardancy, efficient energy absorption, isolation and damping [5]. They can be Metals 2020, 10, 770; doi:10.3390/met10060770 www.mdpi.com/journal/metals
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