Compression mechanics of nickel-based superalloy metal rubber

The work describes the manufacturing and testing of metal rubber (MR) samples produced from nickel-based superalloys, and subjected to compression loading in quasi-static regime, three batches of MRs with different relative densities have been fabricated, and their mechanical properties (tangent modulus, loss factor and Poisson's ratio) have been investigated at different maximum strains, and under cyclic loading. The experiments show the significant effect of the MRs' relative density over the global mechanical compression properties, with the tangent modulus increasing and the loss factor from the hysteretic cycles decreasing in samples with higher density. At low strain level, metal rubber appears to behave like a zero Poisson's ratio material. The results show the effectiveness in controlling the mechanical properties of nickel-based metal rubber by careful adjusting of the relative density during manufacturing.