The Influence of Gradiations of Porous Structures Onto Their Effective Mechanical Behavior

ABSTRACT Hybrid porous materials exploit graded pore architectures to tailor their mechanical performance. Here, FFT‐based homogenization of three‐dimensional volume elements is used to study the influence of different gradation concepts in an aluminum matrix at a fixed solid volume fraction of 80%. Three classes of microstructures are considered: (i) spherical pores with graded size and different spatial arrangements (laminate, overlap, homogeneous), (ii) spherical pores with graded porosity along the loading direction at constant pore diameter, and (iii) ellipsoidal pores with varying aspect ratios and orientations. For graded pore size, all spatial arrangements show very similar macroscopic stress–strain responses, while the local plastic strain fields differ. In contrast, graded porosity in thickness direction leads to a noticeable softening of the effective response and pronounced localization of plastic deformation in highly porous regions. For ellipsoidal pores, orientation and aspect ratio strongly affect the effective stiffness and the distribution of plastic strain, with pores aligned in loading direction yielding the stiffest and most homogeneous response. The results illustrate how pore size, porosity gradation, and pore shape can be used as design parameters for graded porous components.