Cyclic compression behavior and energy dissipation of aluminum foam–polyurethane interpenetrating phase composites

This paper presents a study of the mechanical behavior of aluminum foam–polyurethane interpenetrating phase composites (AF–PU composites) with different corresponding porosity and pore size under cyclic compressions. The dissipated energy of AF–PU composite is described by the area of the compression cycle. Cyclic frequency, strain amplitude, temperature aging and cycle numbers were taken as reacting influence parameters to evaluate the damping capacity of AF–PU composites with different corresponding porosity and pore size. These cyclic tests demonstrate that AF–PU composites can make up the disadvantage of pure aluminum foams (AF) that are not suffered by the recoverable deformation in the stage of plastic plateau, and AF–PU composites with high porosity and large pore size have a good potential applied in hysteretic damping devices for seismic resistant structures under the condition of large strain level and preloading several cycles.