A novel modeling approach of aluminum foam based on MATLAB image processing

Abstract Metal foams are a relatively new class of materials exhibiting well physical and mechanical properties which make them attractive in a number of engineering applications. In this paper, a novel modeling approach is proposed to establish the finite element model (FEM) of aluminum foam. Firstly, MATLAB image processing is used to deal with synchrotron X-ray computed tomography (μCT) scanning images of real aluminum foam and reconstruct geometric model. Secondly, two-step mesh method is employed to mesh the geometrical model by appropriate selection of node, and then establish the FEM of aluminum foam directly. This approach is used to calculate the compression performance of aluminum foam based on ABAQUS, of which porosity is set as 56.41%, 56.71% and 58.02%, respectively, and the matrix material is ZL102. The calculation of aluminum foam can reflect mechanical behavior in the compression process and good numerical results show that present method is applicable.