On Modal Testing and Analysis of Aluminum Foam: Experimental Setup and Approach

For the prediction of the global properties in materials, dynamic tests have shown important advantages over static tests. Despite the superiority of dynamic tests, a high level of precision is required on the measured modal information. The quality of the experimental measurements and modeling, the actual test conditions are very important for further use of the data. The purpose of this research is to develop a technique to measure the eigen frequencies and modes shapes of aluminum foam specimens, accurately. Scanning laser vibrometer measurement and free boundary conditions have been chosen for the specimens tested, in order to improve the correlation between the experimental test setup and the numerical model. Keywords— Modal testing, Alporas, Inhomogeneous mass distribution, Eigen frequencies, Scanning laser vibrometer.