Summary
Numerical simulations and experiments are conducted to study the bending crush behavior of thin-walled columns filled with closed-cell aluminum foam. A nonlinear dynamic finite element code was used to simulate quasi-static three point bending experiments. The aluminum foam filler provides a higher bending resistance by retarding inward fold formation at the compression flange Moreover, the presence of the foam filler changes the crushing mode from a single stationary fold to a multiple propagating fold. The progressive crush prevents the drop in load carrying capacity due to sectional collapse. Henceforth, the aluminum foam filling is very attractive to avoid global failure for a component which undergoes combined bending and axial crushing. This phenomenon is captured from both experiment and numerical simulation. It was found that partially foam-filled beams also still offer, high bending resistance, and the concept of the effective foam length is developed. Potential applications of foam-filled sections for crashworthy structures are suggested.
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Santosa, S., Banhart, J. & Wierzbicki, T. Experimental and numerical analyses of bending of foam-filled sections. Acta Mechanica 148, 199–213 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01183678
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01183678