– The samples of nickel foam with porosity of about 88 percent were uniaxially tensioned at room temperature, and the phenomena of tensile fracture were compared with that from the fully dense plate of metal nickel. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differences between their behaviors of tensile fracture.
– The tensile test was carried out by using the tester of CMT-series microcomputer-controlled electronic universal testing machine. The difference of tensile fracture behavior between the nickel foam and the dense metal nickel was discussed by analyzing the load-displacement curve and the microscopical fracture.
– The results indicated that, nickel foam also displayed the feature of macroscopic plastic-deformation during tension, but it showed a macroscopic brittleness much more than that of the fully dense body. The axial apparent strain at the maximum load for the foamed sample was markedly less than that for the dense one. In addition, an obviously gradual course exhibited for the foamed body during tensile failure and a rapidly instant course for the dense body correspondingly.
– There have been some studies on the tensile behavior for metal foams, but much less than on the compression, and the relevant works are mostly for aluminum foam. The present work provides the investigations on the difference of tensile fracture behavior between the nickel foam and the dense metal nickel, as well as that of the corresponding samples in various cases with different tensile velocities. It is found that the porosity can make a remarkable decrease of the apparent strain at the maximum load and a significant increase of the macroscopical brittleness for the metallic nickel under tension.
