The Mechanical Properties and the Influence of Parameters for Metallic Closed-Cell Foam Subjected to High-Strain Rates

As the trend for lighter more efficient structures continues, the requirement for alternative materials follows. One material that has gained attention more recently is porous metallic foam. One drawback to these materials is that there is limited pedigree and understanding of their performance. As with all materials, the use of metallic foam for structures requires knowledge of its mechanical properties; including at high-strain rates. The focus of this paper is to determine the compressive mechanical properties and the influencing parameters for AISI 4340 steel closed-cell foam under high-strain rates (776s-1 to 3007s-1). ANSYS commercial finite element code is used to simulate a closed-cell sample under a split Hopkinson pressure bar test. In this paper the pores are considered to be spherical in shape for simplification while various parameters such as the pore size, the number of pores, the distribution of pores, and the strain rate are varied. Each of these parameters gives this material a unique response which is presented in this paper.