Study on deformation behavior of cells of the Al-Ca foam using finite element method

Closed-cell aluminum foams are one of the cellular materials used for constructing lightweight bodies and structures owing to their good energy absorbing properties than that of solid material of the same weight. This project is about the study of the compressive behavior of the closed-cell aluminum foam (Alporas type) employing experimental and simulation work and comparing the cell deformation of both the results. The foams were made using aluminum and calcium, fabricated using ‘Melt Stir Route’. The simulation method involves an X-Ray tomography technique where the tomographic data is acquired in an image format and the images are then processed into a 3D STL model using Slicer software. The 3D model is then simulated and analyzed using Ansys software and the results are compared with compressive testing.