Mechanical and Numerical Analysis Concerning Compressive Properties of Tin-Lead Open-Cell Foams

Abstract

The design of new or innovative materials has to meet two essential criteria: increased mechanical performance and minimization of the mass. This dual requirement leads to interest in the study of various classes of metallic foams. The actual research is focused on open-cell Tin-Lead foams manufactured by replication process using NaCl preform. A mechanical press equipped with a load cell and a local extensometer with a controlled deformation rate is used. Experimental tests were carried out in order to study the influences of both the cell size and of the relative density on the mechanical behavior during a compression deformation and to analyze the obtained properties variation within a new framework. This study has three main sections which start with the manufacturing description and mechanical characterization of the proposed metallic foams followed by the understanding and modeling of their response to a compression load via a Gibson-Ashby model, a Feret law, a proposed simple Avrami model, and a generalized Avrami model. Finally, an exposition of a numerical simulation analyzing the compression of the Sn-Pb foams concerning the variation of the relative densities with respect to the plastic strain is proposed.