Analysis Of Thermal Stress On Closed-cell Aluminum Foam Based On Microstructure Model

Aluminum foam is one of the most popular multi-functional materials and is usually usedas thermal insulation. For this reason, aluminum foam is often put in high temperatureenvironment so that thermal stress have great influence on the material. It’s necessary to knowmore about how the temperature affects the material. A simplified model of aluminum foamwas investigated by Finite Element Method (FEM) and some other Theoretical methods toreveal the thermal characteristics and mechanical properties.The main achievements of this paper are showed as follow:On the finite element model of the aluminum foam. The finite element model used in thecalculation was established, including the two-dimensional regular model andtwo-dimensional simplified stochastic model. A detailed description of the model generationmethod and characteristics is given, and discussion was made on the strengths andweaknesses of the models.On the effective thermal conductivity of aluminum foam. Thermal conductivity wascalculated, using of series-parallel model and the finite element method to calculate theeffective thermal conductivity of aluminum foam. Literature results were compared with andthe accuracy was discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of various methods were alsocompletely studied. The effects of the microscopic parameters were also discussed, such asthe pore wall thickness, pore size, on the thermal conductivity of aluminum foam.On the aluminum foam thermal stress. Thermal stress of aluminum foam was calculated,mainly using the finite element method to calculate the simplified model of aluminumfoam.thermal stress distribution was also showed. Results was compared to find out the mainfactor that will have great influence on the thermal stress.