Numerically investigation of steel and aluminum foam under axial impact loading

Energy absorbers have various applications in vehicles, military industries, ships, trains, aerospace industries, etc. In recent years, with the development of science and technology, multiple absorbents have been invented to absorb impact energy and ensure the safety of structures against impacts. Among absorbents, foams have significant advantages such as lightweight and high energy absorption per unit mass. Synthetic foams have a higher energy absorption capacity than conventional metal foams; For this reason, in this study, the energy absorption of synthetic foams at high-speed impact is investigated numerically using Abaqus finite element software. Also, the force-displacement diagram, the amount of energy absorption per unit mass, the initial maximum force, and the samples average force are investigated. Models are low carbon steel synthetic foam, aluminum-6061, and aluminum-6063 synthetic foam. According to the results, it is observed that the amount of energy absorption, maximum strength, and the average strength of low carbon synthetic foam is higher than aluminum synthetic foams, but the amount of energy absorption per unit mass of aluminum synthetic foam-6063 is higher than others.