Effects of face-sheet materials on the flexural behavior of aluminum foam sandwich

Properties of AFS vary with the changes in the face-sheet materials. Hence, the performance of AFS can be optimized by selecting face-sheet materials. In this work, three types of face-sheet materials representing elastic-perfectly plastic, elastic-plastic strain hardening and purely elastic materials were employed to study their effects on the flexural behavior and failure mechanism of AFS systematically. Result showed face-sheet materials affected the failure mechanism and energy absorption ability of AFS significantly. When the foam cores were sandwiched by aluminum alloy 6061, the AFS failed by facesheet yielding and crack without collapse of the foam core, there was no clear plastic platform in the Load-Displacement curve. When the foam cores were sandwiched by stainless steel 304 and carbon fiber fabric, there were no face-sheet crack and the sandwich structure failed by core shear and collapse, plastic platform appeared. Energy absorption abilities of steel and carbon fiber reinforced AFS were much higher than aluminum alloy reinforced one. Carbon fiber was suggested as the best choice for AFS for its light weight and high performance. The versus strength ratio of face sheet to core was suggested to be a significant value for AFS structure design which may determine the failure mechanism of a certain AFS structure.