Mechanical properties of open-cell metal foams under low-velocity impact loading

Dynamic response of open-cell metal foam under low-velocity impact loading is important in applications involving impact resistance and energy absorption, etc. Assuming that metal foam is a conceptually continuous material, the macroscopic mechanical behaviors, both static and dynamic, must be studied. Within the dynamic mechanical properties of metal foam, impact response becomes the renewed interest to understand the characteristics of impact deformation. The present work aims to experimentally and numerically analyze the low-velocity impact response of open-cell metal foam. A series of low-velocity drop impact tests are realized on the open-cell metal foam samples with different relative densities and at different impact velocity. Afterwards, a well compiled program in Python controls the whole multiple drop impact process on each sample of metal foam. Corresponding numerical modeling and the simulation for single impact analysis are continuously carried out with the finite element (FE) program ABAQUS/Explicit. Proper meshing technique, loading and boundary conditions are conducted on all the foam models, and at the same time, the required mechanical properties: elastic module, Poisson's ratio, uniaxial stress-strain response and strain-rate dependence are utilized. In conclusion, the simulated results provide the good agreements with the experimental results in the case of low-velocity impact testing of open-cell metal foam. Experimental procedure and numerical simulation offer good approaches to improve the impact resistance and energy absorption of the open-cell metal foam.