1. Structure-Property Linkages of Aluminum Foams
Marshall Johnson
Materials Informatics – Progress Report 1

2. Why Metal Foams? Low density Favorable properties Applications
Mechanical
Thermal
Electrical
Acoustic
Applications
High surface-area applications, vibration resistance, energy absorption 1

3. Previous Work
Modeling of effective thermal conductivity (λeff) for open cell aluminum foam
Room for improvement?
Reasonable to want both excellent thermal & mechanical properties – how do these correlate? 2

4. Goals Structure-property linkages with elastic mechanical properties
Initial Goal: C11 component of elastic stiffness tensor
Correlations between elastic properties and thermal properties

5. Dataset Generation 3507, 100x100x100 foam samples
Optimally pack domain of spheres, generate Voronoi diagram from sphere’s centers
Use Voronoi diagram triple points to form edges, quadruple points form junctions
3507, 100x100x100 foam samples 1 2 2

6. Example Foam Structures
5 Structural Properties
Pore size
Ligament thickness

7. Methodology Foam data in form of Matlab data file
Convert to Abaqus input files
Elastic simulations for C11 component of stiffness tensor
Treat as 2-phase material
Periodic boundary conditions
Structure-Property linkage for C11 component
Correlations between previously found thermal conductivity & C11 stiffness component

8. References Manufacturing Talk Radio, Metal Foam: A Wonder Material
A. August et. al. Prediction of heat conduction in open-cell foams via the diffuse interface representation of the phase-field method