Investigation on energy absorption properties of Al-foam, foam filled and empty MS tube under 3-point loading condition at room temperature

This paper aims to investigate the comparison of energy absorption of metal foam (AlSi10Mg), foam filled mild steel tube and empty mild steel tube under dynamic loading condition experimentally. The metal foam used is aluminum-silicon alloy foam and the material of steel tube is mild steel. The applications and properties of metal foam were studied. The area, volume and density of all three specimens was studied. Al-Si foam has novel properties like light weight, high energy absorption, vibration dampening and it has prevalent use in applications such as ship building, automobile industries, aeronautical industries, etc. The energy absorption capacity and deformation behavior of metal foam, foam filled mild steel tube and empty mild steel tube was studied under 3 point bending test at room temperature. The graph results showed that Al-Si foam filled mild steel tube absorbed more energy than the foam and empty mild steel tube. (paper)