Abstract:The fatigue analyses of AlSi7 closed-cell aluminium foam were performed using a real porous model and three different homogenised material models: crushable foam model, isotropic hardening model and kinematic hardening model. The numerical analysis using all three homogenised material models is based on the available experimental results previously determined from fatigue tests under oscillating tensile loading with the stress ratio R=0.1. The obtained computational results have shown that both isotropic and kinematic hardening models are suitable to analyse the fatigue behaviour of closed-cell aluminium foam. Besides, the kinematic hardening material model has demonstrated significantly shorter simulation time if compared to the isotropic hardening material model. On the other hand, the crushable foam model is recognized as an inappropriate approach for the fatigue analyses under tension loading conditions.

Key words: closed-cell aluminium foams; fatigue; numerical analysis; material model