EFFECT OF SPECIMEN ASPECT RATIO ON FATIGUE LIFE OF CLOSED CELL Al-Si-Ca ALLOY FOAM

Quasi-static and compressive fatigue tests on the closed cell Al-Si-Ca alloy foam specimens with three different aspect ratios were performed. It turned out that the onset of cyclic shortening of foam with a lower aspect ratio took place earlier and the fatigue strength was lower compared with the specimen with a higher aspect ratio, although all the dimensions of specimen satisfied the seven times the cell size criterion, while the quasi-static stress-strain curves were almost same having same Young's modulus, yield stress and plateau stress. Therefore, the seven times the cell size criterion for the quasi-static compression behavior was not applicable to the fatigue analysis of Al-Si-Ca alloy foam.