Low Velocity Impact Behavior of Closed-Cell Aluminum Foam Considering Effect of Foam Skin

Drop weight impact is the preferable choice for studying the impact behavior of material due to its low to medium strain rates of loading. So, herein, a finite element model is developed using LS-DYNA (R) for numerical simulation of drop weight test. For this investigation, closed-cell aluminum foam (Alulight foam) is used for test simulation. These foams are available with and without skin and in the present investigation, foam with skin is analyzed. Three different impact velocities are used to consider the effect of impact velocities and skin on impact behavior for the foam considered herein. In the present study, material model used for hammer and skin is plastic kinematic, and Deshpande-Fleck material model is used to model the aluminum foam. Based on the developed FE-model, energy absorption by each drop impact test is calculated using the force-displacement relation for the impact velocities considered in the present study.