Spherical indentation method to measure mechanical properties of metallic foams

摘要

The possibility of using a simple spherical indentation method to measure the averagednmechanical properties of metallic foams is investigated in this paper. First, the authors numericallynvalidated that the Oliver–Pharr method can be applied to measure the elastic modulus of metallicnfoams through a spherical indentation test with very satisfactory accuracy. Compared to solidnmetals, metallic foams can deform plastically under hydrostatic loading and this special plasticnbehaviour can be quantified mathematically by a parameter, the so called shape factor. In thisnpaper, the authors present a simple indentation test method to calibrate the shape factor fornmetallic foam.