Tensile and shear properties of aluminium foam

Metal foams have been widely used as various engineering materials, and their mechanical properties have also been drawing extensive attention. Compression behaviour has been relatively extensively, whereas studies of the behaviour under uniaxial tensile and shear loading are rather limited. The present work is concerned with the problem of the static behaviour of closed cell Al foam in tension and shear. Experiments are conducted according to ASTM standards to determine the mechanical properties and failure modes of the Al foam. It is found that the tensile and shear behaviours, and deformation and fracture mechanisms of closed cell Al foams, differ from those in compression. The slope of the initial loading portion of the curve is lower than that of the unloading curve. As a result, Young's modulus and shear modulus are measured from the unloading portion of the curve.