Shock Mitigation in Open-Celled TiNi Foams

High-energy shock events generated by impacts are effectively mitigated by Nitinol materials. Initial evidence of this capability was suggested by the dramatically superior cavitation-erosion performance of Nitinol coatings made by plasma spray processes, over steels and brasses. A fast acting hysteretic stress–strain response mechanism was proposed to explain this result, transforming the shock energy into heat. Extending this work to bulk TiNi, dynamic load characterization using Split Rod Hopkinson Bar techniques on solid porous TiNi confirmed that the mechanical response to high strain rates below 4200 s⁻¹ were indeed hysteretic. This paper reports on dynamical load characterization on TiNi foams made by Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis (SHS) using Split Rod Hopkinson Bar and gas-gun impact characterization to compare these foams to alternative materials. This work verified that SHS-derived TiNi foams were indeed hysteretic at strain rates from 180 to 2300 s⁻¹. In addition, Shock Spectrum Analysis demonstrated that TiNi foams were very effective in mitigating the shock spectrum range below 5 kHz, and that increasing porosity increased the amount of shock attenuation in that spectral range. Finally under impact loading, 55% porous TiNi foams were a factor of 7 superior to steel and a factor of 4 better than Al 6061 or Cu in mitigating peak g-loads and this attenuation improved with bilayer structures of 57 and 73% porous TiNi foam article.