Description of the compressive response of metal matrix syntactic foams

The mathematical description of the compressive behaviour of metal matrix syntactic foams (MMSFs) was investigated and analysed in order to provide continuous functions as input data for finite element and other numerical methods. MMSFs are advanced composite materials having promising application fields in aviation, transport and automotive industry as well as in civil engineering. As foam materials, their typical loading is compression; therefore the compressive properties of MMSFs have been studied. The continuous mathematical description of their response to compressive loading is still missing, but would be important in order to support the design (for example the finite element method) of MMSFs. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive, but relatively simple method to handle the mathematical description of the compressive response of MMSFs. The resulted continuous functions were validated by numerous measurements and good agreement was found for each MMSF types and cases. Due to this the provided functions can be used in the computational design of MMSFs. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.