The Effect of Fe Additive on Plastic Deformation of Crush-Boxes with Closed-Cell Metal Foams, Part II: Al-Composite Foam-Filled brass tubes Compression Response

The brass tubes with foam cores of AlSi7SiC3, AlSi7SiC3Fe1 and AlSi7SiC3Fe3 wereproduced as the crush-boxes with circle and square cross-section. Then axial compressive behaviorand energy absorption capability of the foam-filled tubes were investigated during the quasi-staticprogressive plastic buckling. The uniaxial compressive stress–strain curves of the foam-filled brasstubes exhibited that the compressive stress enhanced smoothly with the increase of the strain andno stress oscillations occurred in the plastic deformation region throughout the tests. The yieldstress and the elastic modulus of the foam-filled brass tubes slightly decreased with the increase ofFe wt. % in the foam cores. Moreover, with the increase of Fe powder from 1wt. % to 3wt. %, theabsorption energy of the foam-filled brass tubes decreased slightly dependent on the tubes crosssection.The strain-hardening exponent of the tubes with the Al7Si -3SiC-(+Fe) foam cores werefound to be lower than the tubes with the Al7Si-3SiC foam cores without Fe. However, theincrease of Fe powder from 1wt. % to 3wt. % caused the approximate elimination of strainhardeningand the plastic deformation behavior tends to be approximated to an ideal-plasticbehavior up to the densification strain. The results indicate that all of the compression responsesare due to the Micro and Macro-defects within the foams cellular structure as well as the tubescross-section geometry.

Keywords:

Metal foam , Composite , Brass tube , Plastic buckling , Compression response , Absorption energy , Intermetallic compound , Foam-filled tubes