Bending behavior of aluminum foam sandwich with 304 stainless steel face-sheet

To gain more knowledge of aluminum foam sandwich structure and promote the engineering application, aluminum foam sandwich consisting of 7050 matrix aluminum foam core and 304 stainless steel face-sheets was studied under three-point bending by WDW-T100 electronic universal tensile testing machine in this work. Results showed that when aluminum foam core was reinforced by 304 steel face-sheets, its load carrying capacity improved dramatically. The maximum load of AFS in three-point bending increased with the foam core density or face-sheet thickness monotonically. And also when foam core was reinforced by 304 steel panels, the energy absorption ability of foam came into play effectively. There was a clear plastic platform in the load-displacement curve of AFS in three-point bending. No crack of 304 steel happened in the present tests. Two collapse modes appeared, mode A comprised plastic hinge formation at the mid-span of the sandwich beam, with shear yielding of the core. Mode B consisted of plastic hinge formation both at mid-span and at the outer supports.