Finite element modeling of fluid-saturated metallic foams from micro-computed tomography

Abstract

Open-cell metallic foams are high stiffness-to-weight cellular materials whose microstructure allows for saturation of viscous liquid. Such a composite has advantages for underwater sound absorption over traditional rubbers due to minimal compression from hydrostatic pressure, composite tunability, and potential for specific gravity less than one. Semi-phenomenological and hybrid numerical models have been shown to predict sound absorption performance of metallic foams, however difficulty arises in determining parameters for the numerical models such as tortuosity, viscous characteristic length, thermal characteristic length, and flow resistivity. Such models also assume that the porous frame is rigid, an assumption valid for only a limited frequency range. In this presentation, finite element models of fluid-saturated metallic foams are created from micro-computed tomography scans and analyzed to determine sound absorption performance. The advantage of this method is that the entire foam microstructure and surrounding fluid can be accurately modeled through a finite element mesh. In addition, experimental measurement of model parameters is not required and the rigid frame assumption can be removed.