Methods for Filling Hollow Structures with Aluminium Foam

Aluminium foams produced according to the powder metallurgical/foaming agent process are currently being used in several industrial sectors, such as automotive, rail transport or machine tools. Nevertheless there still is a high further application potential to be exploited. Especially in hybrid structures, e.g. in automotive structures that are locally filled with aluminium foam, great improvements regarding the energy absorption capacity and the sound absorption behaviour can be obtained. In the present paper several methods that allow for filling or local filling of hollow structures are investigated and presented. The effect of the foam filling on the energy absorption behaviour of the hybrid structure is discussed. Similar effects were also observed in compression tests on foam filled hollow profiles. The results of these investigations are presented.