Author(s)

ISTVÁN KOZMA, DÓRA HARANGOZÓ, HAJNALKA HARGITAI, IBOLYA ZSOLDOS

Abstract

Metal matrix syntactic foams are being used more and more widely thanks to their relative density as well as their perfect energy-absorbing characteristics. Multiple studies concern the economical production of these materials – particularly, how energy absorption as a physical characteristic can be increased. Many studies examined the effects of material choice as well as cell size and wall thickness of reinforcing materials on compressive strength. However, there are only estimated models about descriptions concerning decaying processes of samples from different material composition and geometrical variation. In this study, we introduced an “in situ” examination in order to model the decaying process. We upsetted aluminium-ceramic composite foams cyclically. We reconstructed the geometry of the sample with microcomputed tomography (μCT) technology and digital image processing at certain specified points of the compression test. During the complete decaying process, the process was evaluated with volume change and number of broken hollow particles, as well as elementary particle displacements, orientation and sphericity of the reinforced material.

Keywords

failure analysis, metal matrix syntactic foam, μCT, deformation analysis