Bending response of sandwich panels with steel skins and aluminium foam core

Nominated for Eurosteel 2021 Best Paper Award
The introduction to the market of metal foams represents a significant opportunity to increase the use of metal in the construction market. In fact, the development of new products made of metal foams and steel could improve the performance of conventional buildings in terms of stiffness and resistance. The first structural applications of these materials have already shown the potential of composites made of foam and steel, and demonstrated the feasibility of producing mono-dimensional and bi-dimensional elements with a high resistance-to-weight ratio. Reducing the structural weight can be a significant advantage in many cases, such as infrastructures or buildings in seismic zones. Within this framework, the work presented in this paper aims to assess the response of composite sandwich panels made of steel and aluminium foam using a set of tests that will serve as the basis for developing a new system of dry-assembled composite floors. The tests were carried out at the Strength laboratory (Structural Engineering Test Hall) at the University of Salerno, Italy and were designed to verify the mechanical properties of metal foam panels and double-skin glued sandwich panels. The tests have shed light on the basic mechanical properties of both foams and sandwich panels.