Experimental and numerical analyses of bending of foam-filled sections

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-tilled beams also still offer high bending resistance, and the concept of the effective foam length is developed. potential applications of roam-filled sections for crash worthy structures are suggested.