Papers by Keyword: Aluminium Foam

Abstract: Honeycomb structures are frequently used as energy absorption devices in the automotive and aerospace industry. Many studies have been conducted to optimise these structures and improve crashworthiness behaviour. This paper attempts to improve the crashworthiness behaviour of a honeycomb crash box by filling the cells with open-cell aluminium foams. Experimental tests were conducted to develop the honeycomb and aluminium foam material model and, also, to validate the finite element model by experimental data. Foam-filling the crash box allows the control of the densification zone for different impact energies using open-cell aluminium foam, which shows the main novelty of this research. In the end, the optimised structure is presented concerning the optimum number of foam-filled cells and, also, to the aluminium foam’s density that best fits this application.

Abstract: Solar water heating system (SWHS) is water heating equipment that utilizes solar energy for domestic and industrial needs. An absorber plate is the main part of the SWHS that functions to absorb solar energy. Porous materials are efficient in increasing heat transfer, energy efficiency, energy storage, and reducing reflectance losses. Efforts have been made to add aluminium foam as a porous material on the lower and upper surfaces of the absorber plate. Porous materials function absorb heat and store radiant heat energy before being transferred to the fluid. Experimental tests were carried out by testing three models of absorber plates on a solar thermal energy unit with similar conditions. The first model is a standard flat plate (SFP) without aluminium foam. The second model combines standard flat plate and aluminium foam (SFP-TAF), placed on top of the SFP. The third model combines standard flat plate and aluminium foam (SFP-BAF), placed under the SFP. The results showed that the SFP-BAF model has a higher thermal efficiency than the other models. The SFP-BAF model has an efficiency increase of 2.71 % at a flow rate of 10 L/h and 5.39 % flow rate of 12 L/h compared with the standard model (SFP). The position of the aluminium foam at the bottom surface is substantial enough to help absorb and store radiant heat for transfer to circulating water.

Abstract: Due to the process, metal foams produced by powder metallurgy have an inhomogeneous pore structure. The pore size variations from a few tenths of a millimeter up to the centimeter range is so typical. This leads to inconstant properties and makes the predictability of metal foam based components difficult. The present work deals with the approach to precondition the feedstock powder for the production of metal foams by mechanical alloying. Thereby, the homogeneous distribution of the blowing agent TiH₂ is already present in the so-called composite powder. In addition, there is the possibility to add reinforcement particles with regard to a further improvement of the mechanical properties. Overall, this leads to a rather wide range of possible influencing factors and parameters to be varied. Accordingly, the present work is only a preview of a broad experimental program, taking into account the design of experiments and is currently being processed. In this first study, an alloy AA6060 has been used as the matrix material. The evaluated method provides a finer pore structure associated with a modified foaming behavior.

Abstract: The capability periodically to store and release the latent heat of phase transition during melting and solidification of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) has been currently the main subject of interest with regard to cost reduction efforts for cooling, heating of interiors and Domestic Hot Water (DHW) necessary for the operation and maintenance of adequate thermal comfort in new modern as well as old renovated residential buildings. The main principle of PCMs facilities to reduce significantly the energy consumption in the building industry of the future is based on the ability of thermo-active heat exchangers to absorb and later to dissipate into the surroundings excessive heat which can be easily obtained from renewable sources (e.g. solar energy, geothermal heat, etc.) directly in a building or in its immediate vicinity. Smart interior tiling and furnishing systems can provide high energy efficiency by stabilizing the room temperature at a level ensuring sufficient thermal comfort basically governed by the thermal conductivity and heat exchange area between ceiling (respectively also wall and floor if necessary) heat exchangers (radiators) and the heat storage medium in the form of PCMs. Unfortunately, most conventional building materials, e.g. aerated concrete, bricks, gypsum, ceramic tiles, etc. are particularly characterized by very low thermal conductivity, which disadvantages them to be used for these purposes. However, highly porous metallic material such as aluminium foam prepared by powder metallurgy [10, 11] is on the contrary excellently heat conductive, which predisposes it to be used for light-weight design of supporting structure of very energy efficient indoor as well as outdoor thermo-active heat exchangers for building industry of the future. This contribution points to the possibility to apply aluminium foam for both the novel innovative roofing system to cover pitched roofs and the interior ceiling panels, with the minimum energy demands for maintaining the sufficient thermal comfort in future nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEBs).

Abstract: Sandwich structures are ideal for planar parts which require a high bending stiffness ata low weight. Usually, sandwich structures are manufactured using a joining step, connecting theface sheets with the core. The PUR spraying process allows to include the infiltration of the facesheet fibres, the curing of the matrix and the joining of the face sheets to the core within one processstep. Furthermore, this manufacturing process allows for the use of open cell core structures withoutinfiltrating the core, which enables a comparison of different material configurations, assembled bythe same manufacturing process. The selection of these materials, with the aim of the lowest possiblemass of the sandwich composite at a constant bending stiffness, is displayed systematically within thiswork.It could be shown that the bending modulus calculated from the component properties matched theexperimentally achieved values well, with only few exceptions. The optimum of the bending modulus,the face sheet thickness and the resulting effective density could be calculated and also matched theexperimental values well. The mass-specific bending stiffness of the sandwich composites with corestructures of open cell aluminium foams was higher than with closed cell aluminium foams, but wasexceeded by sandwich composites with Nomex honeycomb cores.

Abstract: In this work, aluminium foams with modified geometry were successfully fabricated with a combination of dense and porous structure The main objective of this study were to determine the initial physical properties of aluminium foam with modified geometry in terms of density, porosity and morphology. Three different NaCl space holder sizes ranging from 1 mm to 3 mm were sieved and used to replicate the final pore size of aluminium foam. The samples were successfully produced through casting replication process. After densification, samples underwent water leaching in ultrasonic bath to remove completely the space holder. Results showed that porosity of the aluminium foam increased from 50 – 62% when the size of space holder was increased from 1 mm to 3 mm. The morphology showed clearly an integrated modified geometry between dense and inter-connected porous structure which is beneficial for applications that require combination properties of structural, thermal and mechanical properties.

Abstract: This paper deals with microstructure and micromechanical properties of two commercially available aluminium foams (Alporas and Aluhab). Since none of the materials is available in a bulk and standard mechanical testing at macro-scale is not possible the materials need to be tested at micro-scale. To obtain both elastic and plastic properties quasi-static indentation was performed with two different indenter geometries (Berkovich and spherical tips). The material phase properties were analyzed with statistical grid indentation method and micromechanical homogenization was applied to obtain effective elastic wall properties. In addition, effective inelastic properties of cell walls were identified with spherical indentation. Constitutive parameters related to elasto-plastic material with linear isotropic hardening (the yield point and tangent modulus) were directly deduced from the load–depth curves of spherical indentation tests using formulations of the representative strain and stress introduced by Tabor.

Abstract: Sandwich structures consist of one light core layer and two top layers, which form the load-bearing structure. These layers have to be stiff and strong and have to protect the structure against indentations. The main task of the core layer is to keep the top layers in place and to generate a high shear stiffness. In order to obtain the required space between the top layers, the core layer has to have a high specific volume. Different sandwich materials with aluminium or steel top layers and cores of aluminium combs, corrugated aluminium sheets or aluminium foams are already known. In order to obtain better properties in terms of strength fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) are utilised as top layers; this is the focus of numerous of the current research studies. The sole use of these materials leads to negative effects regarding the damage and impact behaviour. New top layers with high strength and high stiffness characteristics as well as good damage tolerances are to be expected by utilising metal layers in combination with endless fibre-reinforced plastics, so called hybrid laminates. These hybrid laminates combine the positive properties of metals (e.g. ductility) and fibre-reinforced plastics (e.g. tensile strength). The focus of this investigation lies on the production and characterisation of sandwich structures with aluminium foam core layers and hybrid laminate top layers. The foam cores consist of closed pore aluminium foams produced by utilising ingot and powder metallurgical techniques. The top layers consist of glass fibre-reinforced thermoplastics and aluminium layers. The production of the sandwich materials is realised by means of thermal pressing.

Abstract: Sandwich structures with metal foams core are widely used in various engineering applications due to their special properties of high-strength and high-stiffness to weight ratio when compared to the properties of pure material systems. Sandwich structures have the capability to resist impact loads which make them favorable for energy absorber application. The aim of this research is to investigate the impact properties of aluminium foam sandwiched with glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP). Drop weight impact test was conducted using hemispherical impactor tip at velocity of 6.7 m/s by striking the samples with and without face-sheets. The result showed that the GFRP and aluminium foam core sandwich panel exhibited promising energy absorption properties, corresponding to the highest specific energy absorption value observed.