Comparative study of hybrid foam microstructure models

Cellular solids are materials made out of solid strut or thin plate like structures bridged together. They occur in nature in the form of honeycombs, wood, bone, cork etc. These materials possess a unique combination of properties such as low thermal conductivity, low density and high energy-absorption. Foams are a class of cellular solids, generally made by dispersing gas into a liquid material and then cooling it to solidify. They are categorized as opencell and closed-cell foams. Depending on the solid materials that are made into foams, they are also categorized as polymeric foams, metallic foams, and ceramic foams. Due to developments in material science and manufacturing techniques, advanced foams have found potential for use in automobile, aircraft, and space vehicle structures. In the paper the comparative study of the hybrid foam microstructures is presented. Hybrid foam is a new, still developed material that is built of the aluminum open cell foam matrix filled with other material (here: elastomer). The numerical models based on cubic geometry in different configurations are developed. The FE analysis of the compression test is carried out. The results are presented and analyzed due to the microstructure geometry influence on the material behaviour.