Impact Resistance of Metallic Cellular Materials: Effects of Cell Shape and Base Material Ductility

Cellular materials are becoming increasingly popular for protection against impact and blast as they are lightweight yet able to absorb large amounts of energy but transmit relatively low forces to the protected object. In this paper, finite element simulations are carried out to investigate the effects of cell shape and base material ductility on the impact force and energy absorption capacity of metallic cellular materials with different relative densities subject to medium velocity impact. The results show that cell shape has a very significant influence on the overall response, with square cells resulting in the highest overall stress and energy absorption capacity followed by triangular, hexagonal and rhombic cells. Also, the effect of base material ductility is minimal at very low relative densities but rather considerable in cases with higher relative densities.