Finite element simulations on the mechanical properties of MHS materials

Finite element simulations are carried out to examine the mechanical behavior of the metallic hollow sphere (MHS) material during their large plastic deformation and to estimate the energy absorbing capacity of these materials under uniaxial compression. A simplified model is proposed from experimental observations to describe the connection between the neighboring spheres, which greatly improves the computation efficiency. The effects of the governing physical and geometrical parameters are evaluated; whilst a special attention is paid to the plateau stress, which is directly related to the energy absorbing capacity. Finally, the empirical functions of the relative material density are proposed for the elastic modulus, yield strength and plateau stress for FCC packing arrangement of hollow spheres, showing a good agreement with the experimental results obtained in our previous study. The project supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC) (HKUST 6079/00E) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10532020).