Mechanical properties and micro-deformation of sintered metallic hollow sphere structure

•Finite element analysis using volume meshes based on μCT data.•Verification using experimental data.•Determination of effective mechanical properties.•Analysis of material anisotropy.

This paper presents experimental and numerical analysis of sintered metallic hollow sphere structure (SMHSS). For the first time, finite element analysis is based directly on the complex material meso-structure captured by micro-computed tomography scanning. In parallel, experimental tests are performed on cylindrical specimens of two different sample sizes in order to test for size effects. A total of 14 samples are subjected to uni-axial compressive loading in order to measure Young’s modulus, the R70 hysteresis stiffness and the 0.2% offset yield strength. Micro-computed tomography data of two of the tested samples is used for advanced numerical analysis. Numerical findings are compared to experimental data for verification and are used to test for material anisotropy. In addition, finite element analysis is applied to study the micro-deformation inside the sintered metallic hollow sphere structure SMHSS.