Fatigue behavior of aluminum foams

Metal foam samples were produced by the power metallurgical Fraunhofer process, and quasi-static tests were performed to obtain the compression strength of the foams. The compression strength was used as the reference strength in the fatigue tests. Regardless of its composition, all the foams exhibited the universal deformation behavior. For small compressions, an increase that changes into a regime of very strong plastic deformation was observed after a weak deformation. After a phase of strong deformation, the foam densified and the stress levels grew very quickly.