Controlling of Distribution of Mechanical Properties in Functionally-Graded Syntactic Foams for Impact Energy Absorption

2012 ◽  
Vol 706-709 ◽  
pp. 729-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiro Higuchi ◽  
Tadaharu Adachi ◽  
Yuto Yokochi ◽  
Kenta Fujimoto

In the study, novel fabrication processes of functionally-graded (FG) syntactic foams were developed to control distribution of the mechanical properties in the FG foams for highly impact energy absorption. In order to control mechanical properties, the density distributions in FG foams were graded by floating phenomenon of the light-weight micro-balloons in matrix resin during curing process. The density distribution in the foam could be controlled by adjusting the average volume fraction and the turning procedure of the mold before grading the micro-balloons in the foam. The compression tests of the fabricated FG foams suggested that the foams had high absorption of impact energy since the foams collapsed progressively due to the grading of the density distribution.

2012 ◽  
Vol 706-709 ◽  
pp. 711-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadaharu Adachi ◽  
Masahiro Higuchi

Function of functionally-graded (FG) foams as energy absorption material for impact was discussed on the basis of theoretical analysis, and fabrication process of the foams was proposed in the paper. The FG foams were found to be useful as impact absorber due to progressively local fracture or cushion in the theoretical analysis. Next the fabrication process of the FG foams was suggested. The graded dispersion of the micro-balloons was conducted before curing the matrix resin in the process. The density distributions in the FG foams were confirmed to be predicted by the numerical analysis on the basis of floating the micro-balloons. Finally, compression tests were carried out to evaluate mechanical properties.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1035 ◽  
pp. 878-883
Author(s):  
Ming Ming Su ◽  
Mo Qiu Li ◽  
Thomas Fiedler ◽  
Hai Hao

The uniform aluminum matrix syntactic foams (SFs) were prepared by the stir casting method, with alumina hollow spheres (2-3 mm and 3-4 mm) and expanded glass (2-3 mm) as reinforcements, and ZL111 aluminum alloy as matrix. The functionally graded aluminum matrix syntactic foams (FG-SFs) were obtained by superimposing two uniform aluminum matrix syntactic foams. Quasi-static compression tests were performed. The plateau stress of FG-SFs containing only hollow spheres decreased slightly with increasing volume fraction of SF containing 3-4 mm hollow spheres. The FG-SFs containing 2-3 mm hollow spheres and 2-3 mm expanded glass showed the highest plateau stress. The energy absorption behavior of all samples fluctuated in a small range. The initial position of shear band depended on the volume fraction of uniform aluminum matrix syntactic foams, reinforcement type and size. The cracks always appeared first in the uniform aluminum matrix syntactic foams containing expanded glass.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4410
Author(s):  
Zhou Wen ◽  
Ming Li

Bionic design is considered a promising approach to improve the performance of lattice structures. In this work, bamboo-inspired cubic and honeycomb lattice structures with graded strut diameters were designed and manufactured by 3D printing. Uniform lattice structures were also designed and fabricated for comparison. Quasi-static compression tests were conducted on lattice structures, and the effects of the unit cell and structure on the mechanical properties, energy absorption and deformation mode were investigated. Results indicated that the new bionic bamboo structure showed similar mechanical properties and energy absorption capacity to the honeycomb structure but performed better than the cubic structure. Compared with the uniform lattice structures, the functionally graded lattice structures showed better performance in terms of initial peak strength, compressive modulus and energy absorption.


Author(s):  
Tien-Chih Lin ◽  
Nikhil Gupta

Hollow particle (microballoon) filled polymeric composites, called syntactic foams, are tested for impact properties in the present work. Izod type pendulum impact testing is carried out on eight types of foams, which are made of four types of microballoons used in volume fractions of 0.5 and 0.6. Variation in the volume fraction of microballoons leads to a difference in the total energy absorbed during fracture of different types of foams. Results show that syntactic foams containing microballoons of lower density show lower impact strength because of the lower strength of these microballoons. An increase in microballoon volume fraction leads to decreased energy absorption and strength.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-11
Author(s):  
Ahmed Mansoor Abbood ◽  
Haider K. Mehbes ◽  
Abdulkareem. F. Hasan

In this study, glass-filled epoxy functionally graded material (FGM) was prepared by adopting the hand lay-up method. The vertical gravity casting was used to produce a continuous variation in elastic properties. A 30 % volume fraction of glass ingredients that have mean diameter 90 μm was spread in epoxy resin (ρ = 1050 kg/m3). The mechanical properties of FGM were evaluated according to ASTM D638. Experimental results showed that a gradually relationship between Young’s modulus and volume fraction of glass particles, where the value of Young’s modulus at high concentration of glass particles was greater than that at low concentration, while the value of Poisson’s ratio at high concentration of glass particles was lower than that at low concentration. The manufacture of this FG beam is particularly important and useful in order to benefit from it in the field of various fracture tests under dynamic or cyclic loads.


Author(s):  
Mahshid Mahbod ◽  
Masoud Asgari ◽  
Christian Mittelstedt

In this paper, the elastic–plastic mechanical properties of regular and functionally graded additively manufactured porous structures made by a double pyramid dodecahedron unit cell are investigated. The elastic moduli and also energy absorption are evaluated via finite element analysis. Experimental compression tests are performed which demonstrated the accuracy of numerical simulations. Next, single and multi-objective optimizations are performed in order to propose optimized structural designs. Surrogated models are developed for both elastic and plastic mechanical properties. The results show that elastic moduli and the plastic behavior of the lattice structures are considerably affected by the cell geometry and relative density of layers. Consequently, the optimization leads to a significantly better performance of both regular and functionally graded porous structures. The optimization of regular lattice structures leads to great improvement in both elastic and plastic properties. Specific energy absorption, maximum stress, and the elastic moduli in x- and y-directions are improved by 24%, 79%, 56%, and 9%, respectively, compared to the base model. In addition, in the functionally graded optimized models, specific energy absorption and normalized maximum stress are improved by 64% and 56%, respectively, in comparison with the base models.


Author(s):  
Lingyu Sun ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Dingxin Leng

With the exceptional mechanical properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered to be attractive candidate reinforcements for composite materials and to have potential applications in improving the energy absorption capability of matrix material. However, it is still difficult to reveal the micro-mechanisms of the impact energy absorption of CNT-reinforced composites by experiments, hence, the numerical investigation is helpful. In this paper, a unit cell of single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) embedded in metal matrix is modeled by nano-scale finite element method. Under impact loads, the failure modes of a single SWCNT and the SWCNT in matrix are predicted, respectively, and several possible energy absorption mechanisms are explained and compared. The investigation shows that, the metal matrix restraints the radial expansion of the SWCNT and therefore improves its crush buckling resistance, and makes it absorb more energy before collapse. The specific energy absorption of SWCNTs-reinforce composites increases with the increasing volume fraction of SWCNTs in both matrixes, and ascends more quickly in magnesium alloy than in aluminum alloy matrix.


Author(s):  
Saeed Rouhi ◽  
Seyed H Alavi

In this paper, the elastic properties of functionally graded materials reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes are studied. Three different matrices, including steel-silicon, iron-alumina and alumina-zirconia are considered. Besides, the effects of nanotube length, radius and volume fraction on the Young’s modulus of functionally graded matrices reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes are investigated. It is observed that short nanotubes not only cannot increase the longitudinal elastic modulus of the matrices, but sometimes decrease their elastic modulus. Of the three selected matrices, steel-silicon matrix would have the most enhancement. Investigation of the effect of nanotube volume fraction on the mechanical properties of nanocomposites shows that increasing the volume fraction of long single-walled carbon nanotube results in increasing the elastic modulus of the nanocomposites.


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