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Static and dynamic crush performance of aluminium structures filled with aluminium foam

The multi-material concept in the body design using lightweight materials (e.g. light metals and cellular solids) is the current trend in automotive sector with the aim to develop cost-effective solutions to produce energy absorbing lightweight structures with reliable and predictable mechanical behaviour. This has allowed to design and manufacture safer, energy-efficient and environment friendly vehicles with lower mass in comparison to the use of traditional steel designs. Foam-filled structures made of light aluminium alloys have been developed and subjected to mechanical loading, taking full advantages of excellent properties of its individual components (thin-walled tubes and closed-cell foams). Ex-situ and in-situ foam-filled tubes (FFTs) were prepared by inserting a foam filler into an empty aluminium tube, or by filling the empty aluminium tube with foam during its formation using the powder compact foaming technique, respectively. Static and dynamic crush bending performance of such structures was evaluated through mechanical experiments coupled with infrared thermography, exploring their deformation and failure mechanism. The results have confirmed the advantage of FFTs, in particular the in-situ FFTs that show a more stable and controllable deformation allowing a reliable prediction of their bending behaviour, in opposite to the ex-situ FFTs characterising by an early failure due to propagation of a visible main crack.

Porous materials; Infrared thermography; Three point bending

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