Influence of the different moduli in tension and compression on three-point bending of aluminum foam sandwich panels

Aluminum foam was a typical bimodulous material with different elastic moduli in tension and compression.The three-point bending behaviors of sandwich panel were simulated using ABAQUS FEA software.The crushable foam material constitutive model was used to simulate aluminum foam core,and the different elastic moduli were adopted in tension and compression zone to study the influence of the elastic moduli.Furthermore,the void model with bimodulous character was used to simulate the three-point bending response of aluminum foam sandwich panels.Based on the same monotonic compression response of aluminum core,the simulated results of void model were compared with that of crushable foam model without bimodulous character.It was shown that the elastic moduli of aluminum foam core has a great influence on the three-point bending behavior of aluminum foam sandwich panels.If the bimodulous effects of aluminum foam was neglected,the simulated loading stiffness and yield load are obviously on low side for the three-point bending behaviour of aluminum foam sandwich panel.