Validation of constitutive models applicable to aluminium foams

An extensive experimental database has been established for the structural behaviour of aluminium foam and aluminium foam-based components (foam-filled extrusions). The database is divided into three levels, these are: (I) foam material calibration tests, (2) foam material validation tests and finally (3) structural interaction tests where the foam interacts with aluminium extrusions. This division makes it possible to validate constitutive models applicable to aluminium foam for a wide spectrum of loading configurations. Several existing material models for aluminium foam from the literature are discussed and compared. To illustrate the use of the database, four existing material models for foams in the explicit, non-linear finite element code LS-DYNA have been calibrated and evaluated against configurations in the database. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.