Simulation and modeling of different cell shapes for closed-cell LM-13 alloy foam for compressive behavior

Abstract

Abstract In the present investigation, a two-dimensional (2D) finite element (FE) model of closed-cell AlSi12Mg1Cu1 alloy foam (AAFs) of 0.35 relative density of different cell shapes, i.e., square, hexagonal, octagonal, and circular shaped cell established with the help of ABAQUS simulation software. Experimentation is also done for 0.35 relative density metal foam to report its compressive behavior. The plateau stress σ p l $\left(\right.{\sigma }_{pl}$ ) and energy absorption capacity (E ab) of AAFs (ρ rd = 0.35) properties are calculated from the plotted stress–strain graph and a significant effect of cell shape on compressive performance observed. By SEM characterization, it was noted that the experimental specimen also had near circular cells. The strength and energy absorption values are calculated for square-shape, circular-shaped, octagonal-shaped, and hexagonal-shaped cells in descending order from maximum to minimum. A convergence study is also carried out concerning the number of elements to obtain the most accurate FE results.