Validation of Material Models for the Numerical Simulation of Aluminum Foams

In the last years a lot of studies dealt with the material modeling of metallic foams, especially for the Aluminum ones. All these activities were performed especially for automotive field applications because the high energy- absorbing property of such foams fits very well the requirement to carry impacting loads efficiently. In spite of this, the industrial applications are not yet so widespread both for manufacturing costs and for a lack of knowledge regarding a whole mechanical characterization. The anisotropic properties of the foams induced mainly by the manufacturing processes, like the continuous casting procedure [1,2] is the reason due until now it has not been possible to assess in a well-known way the foams mechanical performances. In function of the wide spectrum of loading configurations, foaming direction, open and closed cells typology, cells morphology, density, thickness, etc., the output data regarding the mechanical tests are largely scattered (e.g. the stress/strain curves change according to the direction along the experimental test is performed), so a numerical model designed to reproduce accurately the foam behavior needs to take into account the parameters affecting the foam response...