Experimental and simulation-based characterization of the elastic material behavior of powder metallurgically produced AlSi10Mg foams

This study investigates the elastic behavior of AlSi10Mg foams fabricated via powder metallurgical methods using TiH as a foaming agent. Nanoindentation-based characterization of the foam wall material was combined with mechanical compression testing and simulation-based numerical homogenization to determine both microscopic and macroscopic Young’s moduli. The compression tests focus on determining the purely elastic material response, avoiding even localized plastic deformation. High-resolution X-ray microscopy (XRM) data of three representative specimens were used to generate finite element meshes for computing directional stiffness properties. The simulations reveal moderate elastic anisotropy, with the lowest Young’s moduli generally occurring along the direction of reduced specimen thickness. The experimentally measured stiffness quantitatively aligns well with numerical predictions, but yielded more anisotropy than predicted.