Issue 36

J. Kováčik et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 36 (2016) 55-62; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.36.06 55 Focused on Fracture Mechanics in Central and East Europe Scaling of compression strength in disordered solids: metallic foams J. Kováčik Slovak Academy of Science ummsjk@savba.sk J. Jerz, N. Mináriková Slovak Academy of Science ummsjerz@savba.sk , ummsnmin@savba.sk L. Marsavina, E. Linul University Politehnica Timisoara liviu.marsavina@upt.ro , emanoil.linul@upt.ro A BSTRACT . The scaling of compression strength with porosity for aluminium foams was investigated. The Al 99.96, AlMg1Si0.6 and AlSi11Mg0.6 foams of various porosity, sample size with and without surface skin were tested in compression. It was observed that the compression strength of aluminium foams scales near the percolation threshold with T f ≈ 1.9 - 2.0 almost independently on the matrix alloy, sample size and presence of surface skin. The difference of the obtained values of T f to the theoretical estimate of T f = 2.64 ± 0.3 by Arbabi and Sahimi and to Ashby estimate of 1.5 was explained using an analogy with the Daoud and Coniglio approach to the scaling of the free energy of sol-gel transition. It leads to the finding that, there are two different universality classes for the critical exponent T f : when the stretching forces dominate T f = f = 2.1, respectively when bending forces prevail T f =  .d = 2.64 seems to be valid. Another possibility is the validity of relation T f ≤ f which varies only according to the universality class of modulus of elasticity in foam. K EYWORDS . Metallic foams; Aluminium foams; Compression; Compression strength; Percolation. I NTRODUCTION he compression strength is a key property, which determines the industrial applications of the disordered solids, such as natural rocks, porous ceramics or metallic foams [1-8]. The traditional approaches to the failure phenomena of solid materials are mostly valid for the solids that are macroscopically homogeneous. Moreover, they deal with the problem without considering the effect of the microscopic disorder. In disordered materials, the presence of pores of various sizes, shapes and orientations makes the problem more complex. The initiation and growth T