Please suggest how to do compression test on aluminium cenosphere syntactic foam. The modelling and assign the material properties using Abaqus software.
You will need to create statistically representative unit cells of your syntactic foam. If your sphere volume fraction is low (up to 30-40%) then you can use something like a random sequential absorption (RSA) algorithm to generate your sphere locations. For higher Vfs, RSA will not delvier and you'll need to use an event driven algorithm (e.g. Lubachevsky and Stillinger's algorithm). Once you have the locations of your spheres (along with their radii) with a volume, you will then need to go through the usual create geometry, mesh, apply BCs, etc.. process. This will need to be done repeatedly so is best done in Abaqus by python scripting, IMO. Outline of how to do this for syntactic foams made with glass microspheres and epoxies is described here:
Conference Paper A NUMERICAL METHOD FOR PREDICTING THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ...
Caveat emptor, the resins system and cure cycle were chosen to minimse the effect of thermal and cure induced residual stresses. I suspect that these will not be trivial contributions to your problem. Method for backing out strength of sphere walls may possibly be applicable for your cenospheres.
You will need to create statistically representative unit cells of your syntactic foam. If your sphere volume fraction is low (up to 30-40%) then you can use something like a random sequential absorption (RSA) algorithm to generate your sphere locations. For higher Vfs, RSA will not deliver and you'll need to use an event driven algorithm (e.g. Lubachevsky and Stillinger's algorithm). Once you have the locations of your spheres (along with their radii) within a volume, you will then need to go through the usual create geometry, section, apply material properties, instance part, mesh, apply BCs (take care with periodic BCs), etc.. process. This will need to be done repeatedly so is best done in Abaqus by python scripting, IMO. Outline of how to do this for syntactic foams made with glass microspheres and epoxies is described in the attached and linked
Caveat emptor, the resins system and cure cycle were chosen to minimise the effect of thermal and cure induced residual stresses. I suspect that these will not be trivial contributions to your problem. Method for backing out strength of sphere walls may possibly be applicable for your cenospheres.