Cellular Metals in Vehicle Safety Applications

Metallic foams and sponges have been successfully used in structural parts of automobiles, to enhance vehicle safety in the event of a collision. The most important characteristic of such materials is their capacity of absorbing impact energy. This study seeks for new viable applications to those materials, relating them to vehicle safety devices. With that in mind, samples of cellular aluminum were produced, by a new processing technique, and those underwent mechanical tests of compression and impact. It was made a comparison between force and energy levels involved, and the respective stiffness and impact energy absorbing capability of the samples. The results allowed the evaluation of the suitability of the material to the proposed applications.