GOALI: Laser Forming of Metal Foam with Controlled Dimensional and Mechanical Properties

这项学术与工业联络资助项目（GOALI）研究了一种激光成形金属泡沫的新工艺。金属泡沫材料具有优异的减震性能和重量轻的特点，在工业应用中显示出巨大的潜力。金属泡沫以平板形式制造是最经济的，然后在特定应用中根据需要弯曲。然而，由于其细胞几何形状的高结构刚度，使得金属泡沫在机械弯曲时容易使细胞壁破碎和开裂。另一方面，激光成形已经显示出无需施加机械力也不需要模具就能成形固体金属板的能力。然而，为固体金属板的激光成形所开发的知识并不直接适用于泡沫，因为固体金属和泡沫金属对激光照射和变形的响应存在根本差异。该项目的成功有望实现创新工程组件的设计和制造，其中包含低密度金属泡沫，以显着提高组件性能或引入突破性功能。来自关键工业合作伙伴的PI的大力支持可能导致这些组件的工业应用的快速发展，具有广泛的社会影响，包括增强安全性，减轻重量和燃料消耗，包括汽车，航空航天和国防等广泛的行业。将招募代表性不足的学生，来自社区学校的高中生和STEM教师将参与“接触”和“进入”活动的创新结合。该项目旨在对控制低密度金属泡沫激光成形的热机械机制有一个基本的了解，确定成形机制如何导致大弯曲角度下屈曲细胞和微裂纹等缺陷的形成。基本的理解将有助于减少缺陷，控制尺寸精度和改善弯曲产品的机械性能，并通过建立预测能力来量化上述现象。将进行激光成形实验，并对实验结果进行量化。在大弯曲角度下，将分析微裂纹、屈曲单元和熔化材料的形成。实验结果将验证热-力学数值模型。该项目预计将通过模拟和实验分析的基本方法，大大提高对激光照射与低密度金属泡沫之间相互作用的理解。

This Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) research project investigates a novel process for laser forming of metal foam. Metal foam has shown great potential in industrial applications by virtue of its excellent shock absorption properties and light weight. Metal foam is most economically manufactured in flat panel format and then bent as required in particular applications. The high structural rigidity due to its cellular geometry, however, makes metal foam prone to cell wall crushing and cracking when mechanically bent. Laser forming, on the other hand, has shown the capability of shaping solid metal plates without applying mechanical forces nor requiring dies. Knowledge developed for laser forming of solid metal plates, however, is not directly applicable to foams due to fundamental differences between solids and foam metals in their response to laser irradiation and deformation. The success of this project is expected to enable the design and fabrication of innovative engineering components that incorporate low-density metal foam to significantly enhance component performance or introduce groundbreaking functionalities. The PI's strong support from a key industrial partner could lead to a rapid development of industry applications of these components with broad societal impact including enhanced safety, reduced weight and fuel consumption for a wide range of industries including automotive, aerospace, and defense. Underrepresented students will be recruited, and high school students and STEM teachers from neighborhood schools will be engaged in an innovative combination of "reach out" and "let in" activities.The project aims to develop a fundamental understanding of the thermo-mechanical mechanisms that govern laser forming of low-density metal foam, determine how the forming mechanisms contribute to the formation of defects such as buckled cells and micro-cracks at large bending angles. The fundamental understanding will allow mitigation of the defects, control of dimensional accuracy and improvement mechanical properties in bent products, and quantify the above phenomena by establishing predictive capabilities. Laser forming experiments will be performed and results quantified. The formation of micro-cracks, buckled cells and melted material at large bending angles will be analyzed. The experimental results will validate thermal-mechanical numerical models. This project is expected to considerably advance the understanding of interactions between laser irradiation and low-density metal foam using a fundamental approach to both simulation and experimental analysis.