Laser Forming of Metal Foam Sandwich Panels: Effect of Panel Manufacturing Method

Author(s):  
Tizian Bucher ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Chang Jun Chen ◽  
Ravi Verma ◽  
Wayne Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Sandwich panels with metal foam cores have a tremendous potential in various industrial applications due to their outstanding strength-to-weight ratio, stiffness, and shock absorption capacity. A recent study paved the road towards a more economical implementation of sandwich panels, by showing that the material can be successfully bent up to large angles using laser forming. The study also developed a fundamental understanding of the underlying bending mechanisms and established accurate numerical models. In this study, these efforts were carried further, and the impact of the foam core structure, the facesheet and foam core compositions, as well as the adhesion method on the bending efficiency and bending limit was investigated. These factors were studied individually and collectively by comparing two fundamentally different sandwich panel types. Thermally-induced stresses at the facesheet/core interface were thoroughly considered. Numerical modeling was carried out under different levels of geometric accuracy, to complement bending experiments under a wide range of process conditions. Interactions between panel properties and process conditions were demonstrated and discussed.

Author(s):  
Tizian Bucher ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Chang Jun Chen ◽  
Ravi Verma ◽  
Wayne Li ◽  
...  

Sandwich panels with metal foam cores have a tremendous potential in various industrial applications due to their outstanding strength-to-weight ratio, stiffness, and shock absorption capacity. A recent study paved the road toward a more economical implementation of sandwich panels, by showing that the material can be successfully bent up to large angles using laser forming. The study also developed a fundamental understanding of the underlying bending mechanisms and established accurate numerical models. In this study, these efforts were carried further, and the impact of the foam core structure, the facesheet and foam core compositions, and the adhesion method on the bending efficiency and the bending limit was investigated. These factors were studied individually and collectively by comparing two fundamentally different sandwich panel types. Thermally induced stresses at the facesheet/core interface were thoroughly considered. Numerical modeling was carried out under different levels of geometric accuracy to complement bending experiments under a wide range of process conditions. Interactions between panel properties and process conditions were demonstrated and discussed.


Author(s):  
Tizian Bucher ◽  
Steven Cardenas ◽  
Ravi Verma ◽  
Wayne Li ◽  
Y. Lawrence Yao

Over the past decade, laser forming has been effectively used to bend various metal foams, opening the possibility of applying these unique materials in new engineering applications. The purpose of the study was to extend laser forming to bend sandwich panels consisting of metallic facesheets joined to a metal foam core. Metal foam sandwich panels combine the excellent shock-absorption properties and low weight of metal foam with the wear resistance and strength of metallic facesheets, making them desirable for many applications in fields such as aerospace, the automotive industry, and solar power plants. To better understand the bending behavior of metal foam sandwich panels, as well as the impact of laser forming on the material properties, the fundamental mechanisms that govern bending deformation during laser forming were analyzed. It was found that the well-established bending mechanisms that separately govern solid metal and metal foam laser forming still apply to sandwich panel laser forming. However, two mechanisms operate in tandem, and a separate mechanism is responsible for the deformation of the solid facesheet and the foam core. From the bending mechanism analysis, it was concluded on the maximum achievable bending angle and the overall efficiency of the laser forming process at different process conditions. Throughout the analysis, experimental results were complemented by numerical simulations that were obtained using two finite element models that followed different geometrical approaches.


Author(s):  
Tizian Bucher ◽  
Connor Finn ◽  
Ravi Verma ◽  
Wayne Li ◽  
Y. Lawrence Yao

Abstract Metal foam sandwich panels have been subject of many concept studies, due to their exceptional stiffness, light weight, and crash absorption capacity. Yet, the industrial production of the material has been hampered by the fact that it is challenging to bend the material into practical engineering shapes. Only recently it has been shown that bending of metal foam sandwich panels is possible using lasers. It was shown that the material can be bent into Euclidean (2D) geometries, and the governing laser-induced bending mechanisms were analyzed. This study was focused on laser forming of metal foam sandwich panels into non-Euclidean (3D) geometries. It was investigated whether the knowledge about the bending mechanisms translates to 3D deformation, and whether the combination of process parameters that were identified for 2D laser forming are still appropriate. Moreover, the impact of the laser scan length was determined by comparing different scan patterns that achieve the same 3D geometries. It was shown that 3D deformation could be induced for both the bowl and saddle shapes, the two most fundamental non-Euclidean geometries. The amount of laser-induced bending and in-plane strains vary depending on process conditions and thus bending mechanisms. Lastly, the laser scan length was shown to become more important for metal foam sandwich panels, where the panel thickness tends to be large.


Author(s):  
Tizian Bucher ◽  
Connor Finn ◽  
Ravi Verma ◽  
Wayne Li ◽  
Y. Lawrence Yao

Abstract Metal foam sandwich panels have been the subject of many concept studies, due to their exceptional stiffness, light weight, and crash absorption capacity. Yet, the industrial production of the material has been hampered by the fact that it is challenging to bend the material into practical engineering shapes. Only recently, it has been shown that bending of metal foam sandwich panels is possible using lasers. It was also shown that the material can be bent into Euclidean (2D) geometries, and the governing laser-induced bending mechanisms were analyzed. This study was focused on laser forming of metal foam sandwich panels into non-Euclidean (3D) geometries. It was investigated whether the bending mechanisms and process parameters identified for 2D laser forming translate to 3D deformation. Additionally, the impact of the laser scan length was determined by comparing different scan patterns that achieve the same 3D geometries. It was shown that laser forming could induce 3D deformation necessary for both bowl and saddle shapes, the two fundamental non-Euclidean geometries. The amount of laser-induced bending and in-plane strains vary depending on process conditions and the governing bending mechanisms. Lastly, the laser scan length was shown to become more important for metal foam sandwich panels, where the panel thickness tends to be large.


Author(s):  
Tizian Bucher ◽  
Christopher Bolger ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Chang Jun Chen ◽  
Y. Lawrence Yao

Over the past several decades, aluminum foam (Al-foam) has found increasing popularity in industrial applications due to its unique material properties. Unfortunately, till date Al-foam can only be affordably manufactured in flat panels, and it becomes necessary to bend the foam to the final shape that is required in engineering applications. Past studies have shown that thin cell walls crack and collapse when conventional mechanical bending methods are used. Laser forming, on the other hand, was shown to be able to bend the material without causing fractures and cell collapse. This study was focused on the thermal aspects of laser forming of closed-cell Al-foam. An infrared camera was used to measure the transient temperature response of Al-foam to stationary and moving laser sources. Moreover, three different numerical models were developed to determine how much geometrical accuracy is needed to obtain a good agreement with experimental data. Different levels of geometrical complexity were used, including a simple solid geometry, a Kelvin-cell based geometry, and a highly accurate porous geometry that was based on an X-ray computed tomography (CT) scan. The numerical results were validated with the experimental data, and the performances of the numerical models were compared.


Author(s):  
Tizian Bucher ◽  
Adelaide Young ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Chang Jun Chen ◽  
Y. Lawrence Yao

To date, metal foam products have rarely made it past the prototype stage. The reason is that few methods exist to manufacture metal foam into the shapes required in engineering applications. Laser forming is currently the only method with a high geometrical flexibility that is able to shape arbitrarily sized parts. However, the process is still poorly understood when used on metal foam, and many issues regarding the foam's mechanical response have not yet been addressed. In this study, the mechanical behavior of metal foam during laser forming was characterized by measuring its strain response via digital image correlation (DIC). The resulting data were used to verify whether the temperature gradient mechanism (TGM), well established in solid sheet metal forming, is valid for metal foam, as has always been assumed without experimental proof. Additionally, the behavior of metal foam at large bending angles was studied, and the impact of laser-induced imperfections on its mechanical performance was investigated. The mechanical response was numerically simulated using models with different levels of geometrical approximation. It was shown that bending is primarily caused by compression-induced shortening, achieved via cell crushing near the laser irradiated surface. Since this mechanism differs from the traditional TGM, where bending is caused by plastic compressive strains near the laser irradiated surface, a modified temperature gradient mechanism (MTGM) was proposed. The densification occurring in MTGM locally alters the material properties of the metal foam, limiting the maximum achievable bending angle, without significantly impacting its mechanical performance.


Author(s):  
Riadh Chaari ◽  
Fathi Djemal ◽  
Fakher Chaari ◽  
Mohamed Slim Abbes ◽  
Mohamed Haddar

Impact dampers are efficient in many industrial applications with a wide range of frequencies. An experimental analysis of the impact damping of spherical balls is investigated to simplify the particle impact damping design and improve the vibration suppression. The objective of the study is to analyze some of the design parameters of impact damper using spherical balls. The experimental investigation consists to test the effect of the ball size for each mass level, the number of balls for each size level and different exciting force levels on vibrations of the main structure. The parametric study provided useful information to understand and optimize Particle Impact Damping design.


2013 ◽  
Vol 535-536 ◽  
pp. 501-504
Author(s):  
Mohd Azman Yahaya ◽  
Dong Ruan ◽  
Guo Xing Lu

Similar blast loading characteristics can be obtained using impact of aluminium foam projectiles, which enables blast tests to be mimicked in a laboratory scale and in a safer environment. The purpose of this study is to determine the back-face deflection history of aluminium sandwich panels experimentally by aids of a laser displacement meter when panels are subjected to the impact of metal foam projectiles. This information was usually determined using finite element analysis (FEA) due to the difficulty in the experiment. The projectiles are cylindrical ALPORAS aluminium foam with diameter of 37 mm, length of 50 mm and nominal relative density of 10%. The sandwich panels consist of two 1 mm aluminium face-sheets and an aluminium honeycomb as the core. There are five different core configurations with a brand name of HEXCEL. The projectiles are fired towards the centre of the sandwich panels at different velocities using a gas gun. During the tests, a laser optical displacement measuring device is used to record the history of the back-face deflection experimentally. The deflection of the back-face is found to reach the maximum before coming to rest at a smaller value. The final back-face deflections of the sandwich panels show exponential relationship with the projectile impulse. The final deflections are compared with the deflection of monolithic plates with equal mass. The sandwich panels deflect less than the monolithic plate with an equal mass up to a critical value but continue to increase significantly afterwards. Care should be taken when using sandwich panels as protective structures against foam projectiles as beyond this point, the monolithic plates outperform the sandwich panels in absorbing the impact load.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 3995
Author(s):  
Arunachalam S. S. Balan ◽  
Chidambaram Kannan ◽  
Kunj Jain ◽  
Sohini Chakraborty ◽  
Siddharth Joshi ◽  
...  

Carbon-Fibre-Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) have seen a steady rise in modern industrial applications due to their high strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. However, their potential is being hindered by delamination which is induced on them during machining operations. This has led to the adoption of new and innovative techniques like cryogenic-assisted machining which could potentially help reduce delamination. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of cryogenic conditions on achieving better hole quality with reduced delamination. In this paper, the numerical analysis of the drilling of CFRP composites is presented. Drilling tests were performed experimentally for validation purposes. The effects of cooling conditions and their subsequent effect on the thrust force and delamination were evaluated using ABAQUS/CAE. The numerical models and experimental results both demonstrated a significant reduction in the delamination factor in CFRP under cryogenic drilling conditions.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 7658
Author(s):  
Marcin Kozłowski ◽  
Kinga Zemła ◽  
Magda Kosmal ◽  
Ołeksij Kopyłow

Due to the high cost of experiments commonly performed to verify the resistance of glass elements to impact loads, numerical models are used as an alternative to physical testing. In these, accurate material parameters are crucial for a realistic prediction of the behaviour of glass panels subjected to impact loads. This applies in particular to the glass’s strength, which is strictly dependent on the strain rate. The article reports the results of an extensive experimental campaign, in which 185 simply supported toughened glass samples were subjected to hard-body impacts. The study covers a wide range of glass thicknesses (from 5 to 15 mm), and it aims to determine a critical drop height causing fracture of the glass. Moreover, a 3D numerical model of the experimental set-up was developed to reproduce the experiments numerically and retrospectively to determine the peak stress in glass that developed during the impact. Based on the results of numerical simulations, a load duration factor of 1.40 for toughened glass for impact loads is proposed. In addition, the paper includes a case study to demonstrate the use of the modelling methodology and results of the work on a practical example of an internal glass partition wall.


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