Compressive Behavior of Porous Metal/Polymer Composite: Experiment and Numerical Modeling

Abstract : For fifteen years, the interest for metal foams has been growing in many research fields. These materials, combining a low density and interesting mechanical properties, can be used for different industrial fields such as automotive and aeronautics. One of the main properties of these materials is the compressive strength which is necessary to existing constitutive models. However, the compressive resistance is weak and is a disadvantage. For this reason, we propose to improve its mechanical behavior by using a composite containing open cell aluminum metal foams and polymers. This work presents three kinds of metal porous polymer composite (MPPC): Aluminum-Polyethylene, Aluminum-Polyamide and Aluminum-Epoxy, where both phases are interpenetrating throughout the structure. Uniaxial compression tests are carried out on these composites and highlight very different mechanical behaviors. We propose afterwards to model its mechanical behavior by a homogenization technique in elasticity and plasticity. Measurement and modeling are in good agreement.