Fabrication and mechanical characterization of hybrid metal foam/bio-composite samples

In this work, the fabrication process and the mechanical characterization of hybrid closed-cell aluminum foam/bio-composite samples were presented. The samples were realized starting from aluminum foam cylinders, obtained by a powder compact foaming process of a dense precursor, wrapped with fabrics of hemp fibers, manually impregnated with epoxy resin. Successively, their mechanical properties were determined, with the ones of the single constituents, i.e. foam cylinders and bio-composite tubes, by means of quasi-static tests. The results of the mechanical tests highlight the properties improvement of the hemp fiber reinforced polymer composite tubes with aluminum foam core, compared to the sum of the single constituents.