Journal of Alloys and Compounds 471 (2009) 147–152 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Alloys and Compounds journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jallcom Review Finite element simulation of mechanical behaviour of nickel-based metallic foam structures Sid-Ali Kaoua, Djaffar Dahmoun, Abd-Elmouneim Belhadj, Mohammed Azzaz ∗ Laboratoire des Sciences et de G´ enie des Mat´ eriaux (LSGM), Universit´ e des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene (USTHB), BP 32 El-Allia, 16111 Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria article info Article history: Received 13 October 2007 Received in revised form 10 March 2008 Accepted 12 March 2008 Available online 6 May 2008 Keywords: Metallic foams Nickel Open cells CAD Finite elements Tension loading abstract In this paper, numerical simulation by finite elements is performed in order to study the mechanical behaviour of foam structures subjected to tension loading. The anisotropic cellular model of Gibson and Ashby is taken like reference in our simulation. The foam structure, constituted by struts and connection stems, is modelled by space beam finite elements. This led to a parametric analysis showing the evolution of foam Young modulus according to some geometrical parameters of the cellular network structure, such as shape and dimensions of cross-section, connection stem length. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 147 2. Geometrical and mechanical modelling of metal foam ............................................................................................ 148 3. Numerical results and discussion ................................................................................................................... 149 4. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 152 Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................. 152 References ........................................................................................................................................... 152 1. Introduction The porous solids of cellular structure are materials whose porosity exceeds typically 70% of volume. Such materials can be described like an assembly of blank cells, each one being sur- rounded by edges or solid walls. The nickel foams, purpose of this work, are constituted by open cells whose porosity exceeds 96% of volume. The nickel foams with open cells are often intended for the battery market of nickel—cadmium-type (Ni–Cd) or metal- lic nickel-hydride one (Ni-MH). They are used as support of the positive electrode in the battery [1–3]. The metallic foams are three-dimensional materials, often with complex geometry, and to date little information on their geome- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +213 70105733; fax: +213 21247919. E-mail address: azzaz@wissal.dz (M. Azzaz). tries were gathered. This lack of documents on the real structure of foams can be explained by the difficulty in determining some of its morphological parameters using two-dimensional analyses. The numerical analysis using 2D tools indeed have a high side resolu- tion but a too low field depth in the third dimension. Specific tools were implemented to describe the microstructure and the local mechanisms of deformation of these porous materials. The study of surfaces fracture analyzed by SEM or X-ray tomography shows that the foam deformation mechanisms in tension differ from those observed in compression [4]. Indeed, foam becomes deformed in tension by realignment and stretching of its struts while a bending followed by buckling of the struts take place in compression. The analysis of former works indicates the possibility of repre- senting the structure of metallic foams with open cells by means of an assembly of beams according to the various cellular forms, like Warren and Kraynik [5,6] who prefer to consider in tetrahedral form the cellular network nodes. However, many authors were interested 0925-8388/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2008.03.069