Measurement and modelling of the elastic defection of novel metal syntactic foam composite sandwich structures in 3-point bending

Abstract This paper presents a process for creating syntactic metal foam sandwich structures which, for the first time, manufactures both the syntactic foam core and metal face sheets in a single step. Unlike previous research, the face sheets are made from the same material, are integral with the sandwich structure and are relatively thick compared to the core. Via comparison with experimental measurements in 3-point bending, it is shown that accurate prediction of the elastic deformation of these sandwich structures necessitates FE-based modelling, but that the methodology is simple. A reliance on predictions from established analytical models, which have proven themselves accurate for foam sandwiches with thin face sheets, leads to significant over-estimations of the stiffness. Modelling, based on the FEA approach developed herein, shows that mass savings between 20 and 30% are achievable for these novel structures, produced using simple and low cost casting methods, but are dependent upon the deflection response required.